SEYMOUR  DURST 


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GUIDE 

TO 

THE  CENTRAL  PARK. 


ILLUSTRATED. 


BY 

T.  ADDISON  RICHARDS. 


NEW  YORK: 
PUBLISHED  BY  JAMES  MILLER, 

(SUCCESSOR    TO    C.    S.    FRANCIS    &  CO.,) 

522  BROADWAY. 
186  6. 


N<1 

S 


Entered  according  to  act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1SG6, 
By  JAMES  MILLER, 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the 
Sctffthern  District  of  New  York. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Origin  and  History  of  the  Park   1 

Original  Aspect  of  the  Grounds   9 

Location  and  Extent  of  the  Park  ,   11 

The  Area  of  the  Park,  as  compared  with  that  of  the  chief 
Pleasure-grounds  of  the  United  States  and  Europe,  and 

the  other  Parks  and  Squares  in  New  York   12 

General  Plan  of  the  Park  :  Drives,  Bridle-roads,  Walks, 

Transverse-roads,  Bridges,  Lakes,  Lawns,  Arbors,  etc..  14 

Cost  of  the  Park   22 

The  Park  Trees   22 

Geology  of  the  Park   25 

The  Attendance  at  the  Park   28 

The  Access  to  the  Park   29 

The  Park  Hours   31 

The  Park  Walls   32 

The  Park  Gates   34 

The  Croton  Reservoirs   35 

The  Marble  Arch  ^   39 

The  Mall     39 

The  Park  Music   41 

Trees  planted  by  the  Prince  of  Wales   42 

The  Japanese  Tree   43 

The  Terrace   43 

The  Ramble   47 

The  Vine-covered  Walk   49 

The  Stone  Arch   50 

The  Cave   50 

The  Tunnel     51 

Foot-bridges  by  the  Lake   51 

The  Bow  Bridge   52 


ii 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

The  Central  Lake :  the  Swans  ;  the  Boats  ;  Winter  Refresh- 
ment-houses ;  the  Skating  Carnivals  ;  Skating  Laws ....  52 


The  Balcony  Bridge   62 

The  Museum,  or  Arsenal   63 

The  Zoological  Garden  «   65 

The  Birds  of  the  Park   67 

The  Pond   67 

The  Flower  Garden   65 

The  Green   69 

The  Playground   70 

The  Dovecot   71 

The  Evergreen  Walk   71 

The  Cedars   72 

The  Maze    72 

The  Winter  Drive   73 

The  Conservatory  Lake   74 

The  Knoll   74 

The  Pool...   75 

The  Loch   76 

Cascades  in  the  Upper  Park   77 

Stone  Bridge  near  Harlem  Lake   77 

The  Grotto  Bridge   80 

The  Boulevard  Drive   81 

The  Refectories   82 

Mount  St.  Vincent   83 

The  Harlem  Lake   85 

The  Arboretum   86 

McGowan's  Pass   87 

Th  Great  Hill   83 

Elevations  of  various  localities  in  the  Park  above  tide- water  89 

The  Bluff   90 

The  Great  Drive  ;..  91 

Underground   92 

The  Designers  and  Constructors  of  the  Park   93 

The  Government  of  the  Park   97 

Ordinances  of  the  Park   97 

The  Future  of  the  Park   101 


ORIGIN  AND  HISTORY. 

The  great  Central  Park  of  New  York  has  become 
already  so  much  the  pride  of  the  citizen  and  the 

marvel  of  the  stranger, 
as  to  need  a  chronicle 
which  may  serve  both 
as  a  guide  to  the  visitor 
while  exploring  its  va- 
ried beauties,  and  as  a 
memorandum  for  after 
reminder  and  reference. 

Such  a  guide  and  sou- 
venir we  ,*hall  endeavor 
to  provide  in  the  follow- 
ing pages. 

The  idea  of  a  great 
park  for  the  metropolis,  commensurate  in  extent 
and  embellishment  with  the  needs  of  a  vast  and  ever- 
increasing  population,  was  first  whispered  about  the 
year  1851,  the  project  commending  itself  at  once  to  the 


4 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


popular  fancy,  and  rich  and  poor  alike,  with  laudable 
liberality  and  intelligence,  giving  a  hearty  assent. 

The  lamented  Andrew  J.  Downing,  then  in  the 
height  of  his  fame  as  a  landscape  gardener  and  rural 
architect,  employed  his  able  pen  enthusiastically  in 
advocacy  of  the  scheme.  "The  leading  topic,1'  said  he, 
in  a  paper  written  at  the  time,  uof  town  gossip  and 
newspaper  paragraphs  in  New  York  is  the  proposed 
new  park.  Deluded  New  York  has,  until  lately,  con- 
tented itself  with  the  little  door-yards  of  space— mere 
grass-plots  of  verdure — which  form  the  squares  of  the 
city,  in  the  mistaken  idea  that  they  are  parks !  The 
fourth  city  in  the  world,  with  a  growth  which  will  soon 
make  it  the  second — the  commercial  metropolis  of  a 
continent,  spacious  enough  to  border  both  oceans,  has 
not  hitherto  been  able  to  afford  sufficient  land  to  give 
its  citizens  (the  majority  of  whom  live  there  the  whole 
year  round)  any  breathing  space  for  pure  air,  any  re- 
creation ground  for  healthful  exercise,  any  pleasant 
roads  for  riding  or  driving,  or  any  enjoyment  of  that 
lovely  and  refreshing  natural  beauty  from  which  they 
have,  in  leaving  the  country,  reluctantly  expatriated 
themselves  for  so  many  years,  perhaps  forever.  Some 
few  thousands,  more  fortunate  than  the  rest,  are  able  to 
escape  for  a  couple  of  months  into  the  country,  to  find 
repose  for  body  and  soul  in  its  leafy  groves  and  pleasant 
pastures,  or  to  inhale  new  life  on  the  refreshing  sea- 
shore. But,  in  the  mean  time,  the  city  is  always  full. 
Its  steady  population  of  many  hundred  thousand  souls  is 
always  there — always  on  the  increase.  Every  ship 
brings  a  live  carr^o  from  over-peopled  Europe  to  fill  up 
its  ever-crowded  lodging-houses ;  every  steamer  brings 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


5 


hundreds  of  strangers  to  fill  its  thronged  thoroughfares. 
Crowded  hotels,  crowded  streets,  hot  summers,  busi- 
ness pursued  till  it  becomes  a  game  of  excitement, 
pleasure  followed  till  its  votaries  are  exhausted — where 
is  the  great  reverse  side  of  this  picture  of  town,  life  in- 
tensified almost  to  distraction 

In  this  same  earnest  paper  A[r.  Downing  goes  on  to 
discuss  at  length  the  many  benefits  to  be  gained  through 
the  creation  of  such  a  park  as  the  one  then  proposed 
and  since  so  amply  provided.  He  dwells  upon  the 
sanitary,  the  social,  and  the  aesthetic  advantages  so  sure 
to  accrue ;  and  even  upon  the  financial  view  of  the 
subject,  showing  its  promise,  with  all  its  cost,  as  a  mere 
paying  business  investment.  He  speaks  of  the  physical 
rest  and  recuperation  it  vould  afford  to  all,  especially 
to  the  poor  and  the  over-worked;  of  the  innocent  and 
the  ennobling  pleasures  it  would  give  to  all — rich  and 
poor,  old  and  young  alike ;  of  the  effect  its  beauties 
would  produce  in  the  awakening  and  the  cultivation  of 
the  public  taste ;  and  of  the  wealth  which  it  would 
bring  to  the  city .  indirectly,  through  that  refinement 
and  elevation  of  the  moral  tone  of  the  people  which 
could  not  but  follow;  and,  directly,  by  the  increased 
value  it  would  give  to  much  of  the  real  estate  of  the 
city,  and  through  the  expenditures  of  the  thousands  of 
strangers  who  would  be  attracted  hither  by  its  multi- 
form beauties. 

This  paper,  like  many  others  in  the  same  vein,  was 
but  an  expression  of  a  feeling  which  had  been  for  a 
long  time  increasing  in  the  popular  heart ;  and  it  was 
evident  that  the  great  park  question  was  one  only  of 
locality,  extent,  and  style. 

1* 


6 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


The  Hon.  Ambrose  C.  Kingsland,  then  major  of  Xew 
York,  recognized  the  public  sentiment  on  the  subject, 
and,  on  the  5th  of  April,  1851,  took  the  initiatory 
official  steps  towards  a  realization  of  the  general  wish, 
by  commending  it  in  a  special  message  to  the  attention 
of  the  Board  of  Aldermen.  This  message  was  referred 
to  the  Committee  on  Lands,  who  reported  that  the 
matter  had  elicited  a  high  degree  of  interest,  and  that 
the j  heartily  concurred  in  the  views  of  the  mayor, — a 
report  evincing  an  intelligence  and  a  regard  for  the 
public  good  not  proverbially  characteristic  of  the  action- 
of  "  Common  Councils.17 

The  park  being  thus  resolved  upon,  the  next  question 
was  as  to  where  it  should  be  located  and  what  should 
be  its  extent.  The  report  of  the  aldermen,  in  answer 
to  the  mayor's  message,  suggested  the  ground  lying  in 
the  upper  part  of  the  city  along  the  East  River,  known 
as  Jones'  Wood — a  very  pleasant  domain  then  and  now, 
and  well  supplied  with  fine  forest-trees.  The  sugges- 
tion of  the  Common  Council  was  acted  upon,  and,  in 
accordance  therewith,  application  was  made  to  the 
Legislature  at  its  extra  session  in  1851,  and  an  act 
known  as  the  "  Jones'  Woods  Park  Bill"  was  passed  by 
that  body  on  the  11th  day  of  July,  1851. 

The  passage  of  this  act  gave  rise  to  a  warm  dispute 
in  respect  to  the  relative  advantages  of  this  and  other 
grounds,  which  resulted  in  the  appointment  of  a  special 
committee  to  examine  and  report  whether  there  was 
not,  within  the  limits  of  the  city,  a  spot  more  adapted 
to  the  requirements  of  a  public  park  than  the  one  desig- 
nater1  by  the  Legislature. 

As  the  park  question  was  considered,  it  gained  daily 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


7 


in  estimation ;  so  that  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  acres 
embraced  in  the  Jones'  Wood  manor,  though  they 
might  have  been  thought  extended  enough  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  scheme,  now  began  to  be  looked  upon  as 
entirely  too  narrow  in  compass,  and  more  room  was 
soon  declared  to  be  necessary.  Heretofore  the  city 
parks  had  been  measured  by  tens  of  acres,  but  now  the 
public  ambition  demanded  that  the  enumeration  should 
be  by  hundreds,  if  not  by  thousands !  The  result  was, 
that  the  special  committee  of  the  Common  Council 
nfade  a  careful  report,  in  which  they  urged  the  use  of 
that  particular  central  district  which  was  afterward  so 
wisely  chosen. 

In  accordance  with  this  amended  geography,  the 
Legislature  was  again  applied  to,  and  an  act  was 
passed  on  the  23d  of  July,  1863,  authorizing  the  taking 
of  the  new  site — that  now  inclosed  in  the  park  walls. 
The  Jones'  Wood  project  was  gradually  dropped,  and  the 
bill  referring  to  it  was  afterward  repealed. 

The  original  charter  and  plan  of  the  park  embraced 
the  present  grounds  northward  as  far  as  One  Hundred 
and  Sixth  street  only, — the  extension  to  One  Hundred 
and  Tenth  street  having  been  subsequently  made,  after 
various  legal  difficulties  and  delays,  very  annoying  and 
inconvenient  to  the  commissioners,  architects,  and  en- 
gineers of  the  park,  but  of  little  interest  to  the  visitor 
now,  beyond  the  pleasant  fact  that  the  area  has  been  so 
aptly  and  advantageously  extended. 

On  the  17th  of  November,  1853,  the  Supreme  Court 
appointed  a  board  of  five  commissioners  of  estimate 
and  assessment  to  take  the  lands  for  the  proposed  park. 
These  commissioners  completed  their  labors  on  the 


8 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


second  day  of  July,  1855,  and  their  report  was  con- 
firmed on  the  5th  day  of  February,  1856. 

On  the  19th  of  May  following,  the  Common  Council 
adopted  an  ordinance,  creating  the  Mayor  and  Street- 
Commissioner  commissioners  of  the  Central  Park,  with 
power  and  means  to  proceed  in  the  execution  of  the 
work  proposed.  This  hoard  immediately  entered  upon 
their  labors,  after  inviting  and  securing  the  co-operation 
of  several  distinguished  citizens,  among  whom  was  the 
late  Washington  Irving  and  the  historian  Bancroft. 

These  gentlemen  met  on  the  29th  of  May,  1856,  and 
organized  by  electing  Mr.  Irving  president  of  the 
board.  They  speedily  arranged  the  preliminaries  for 
carrying  into  effect  the  objects  of  the  commission,  and 
fell  at  once  into  the  consideration  of  the  respective 
merits  of  the  various  plans  submitted  for  their  approval, 
from  which  they  selected  the  one  in  general  accord- 
ance with  which  the  work  has  since  been  executed. 

The  coast  thus  cleared,  an  efficient  corps  of  engineers 
commenced  the  required  surveys,  under  the  direction  of 
Egbert  L.  Viele,  now  General  Yiele,  and  then  the  chief 
executive  officer  of  the  park.  The  entire  area  was 
civided  laterally  into  four  sections,  each  of  which  was 
assigned  to  a  separate  squad,  consisting  of  a  surveyor- 
in-chief,  a  first  and  second  assistant,  and  an  axe-man. 
The  surveys  were  begun  early  in  June,  1856,  and  the 
results  were  satisfactorily  reported  six  months  later. 

Thus,  after  six  years  of  suggestion,  discussion,  legis- 
lation, and  other  preparations,  every  thing  was  in  com- 
plete readiness  for  action ;  and,  in  the  spring  of  1 857, 
large  forces  were  employed,  and  have  been  engaged  in 
the  great  work  ever  since. 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


0 


ORIGINAL  ASPECT  OF  THE  GROUNDS. 

The  Central  Park,  though  blossoming  in  beauty  like 
the  rose  to-day,  was  yesterday,  as  it  were,  only  a  wil- 
derness— as  barren  and  dreary  a  wilderness  as  one 
might  ever  wish  to  enter.  Despite  the  marvels  of 
science,  art,  and  enterprise  now  to  be  seen  there  at 
every  step,  the  whole  region,  less  than  a  single  decade 
ago,  was  a  jungle,  in  which  desolate  ridges  of  barren 
rock  alternated  with  dark  morass  and  stagnant  fen, 
and  from  which  even  such  scant  charms  as  nature  had 
originally  bestowed  upon  it  had  been  stripped  by  the 
lawless  vagabonds  who  had  hidden  themselves  within 
its  wild  recesses. 

The  region  "  was  made  up,"  say  the  commissioners  in 
their  reports,  "  of  low  hills  and  hillocks,  the  rock,  of 
which  they  were  chiefly  composed,  everywhere  crop- 
ping out,  sometimes  boldly,  sometimes  in  large,  smooth, 
flattish  masses  washed  bare  of  soil.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  portions  of  two  swampy  valleys,  and  some 
boggy  meadow  tracts,  there  was  scarcely  an  acre  in  the 
present  Lower  Park  in  which  the  great  underlying  ledge 
of  gneiss  rock  did  not  thrust  itself  above  the  surface. 
Probably  not  a  square  rood  could  be  found  throughout, 
where  a  crowbar  could  be  thrust  its  length  into  the 
ground  without  encountering  rock,  and  often,  in  places 
where  no  rock  was  visible,  it  was  found  to  be  within 
three  inches  to  two  feet  of  the  surface  for  long  dis- 
tances together. 

"Many  of  the  people  dwelling  in  the  squalid  huts  of 
this  God-forsaken  terra  incognita  were  (still  quoting 


10 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


the  reports  of  the  commissioners)  engaged  in  occupa- 
tions which  are  nuisances  in  the  eye  of  the  law,  and 
forbidden  to  he  carried  on  so  near  the  city.  Occupa- 
tions followed,  therefore,  at  night,  in  wretched  hovels 
half  hidden  among  the  rocks,  where  also  heaps  of  cin- 
ders, brickbats,  potsherds,  and  other  rubbish  were  de- 
posited by  those  who  had  occasion  to  remove  them  from 
the  city." 

This  doleful  aspect  of  the  country  now  so  charming 
was  made  even  more  repulsive  by  the  confusion  inci- 
dent to  the  grading  of  streets  then  in  progress  through 
the  rocky  ledges  and  slimy  fens.  Some  idea  of  the 
ancient  appearance  of  the  park-grounds  may  be  ob- 
tained from  a  glimpse  at  the  yet  remaining  rugged  look 
of  some  of  the  streets  in  the  immediate  vicinage.  The 
gentlemen  employed  in  surveying  and  reclaiming  the 
country  could  hardly  have  had  wilder,  and  certainly 
not  more  dangerous  work  in  the  solitudes  of  a  western 
forest.  It  is  of  such  unpromising  material  that  the 
present  Arcadia  has  been  made,  and  which  lias  proved 
to  be,  in  judicious  and  skilful  hands,  of  far  greater  ca- 
pacity for  the  creation  of  beauty  and  variety  of  effect,  than 
could  have  been  the  richest  and  most  lavishly  wooded 
le  ~el  lawns  and  slopes,  showing  in  the  picturesque  as 
well  as  in  the  moral  world,  that  it  is  from  the  nettle 
Danger  the  flower  Safety  may  be  most  surely  plucked. 

This  look  back  upon  the  unpromising  past  of  the 
park  will,  we  trust,  only  heighten  the  pleasure  of  the 
visitor  while  contemplating  its  present  wonderful  met- 
amorphosis, as  the  oak  grows  to  the  eye  grander  in  its 
forn^  when  we  remember  the  wee  acorn  from  which 
its  majesty  has  sprung. 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


11 


-  LOCATION  AKD  EXTENT  OF  THE  PARK. 

The  city  of  £Tew  York,  which  occupies  the  entire 
island  and  county  of  New  York,  is  about  fourteen 
miles  long  from  north  to  south,  and  in  width  varies  from 
half  a  mile  to  two  and  a  half  mile-.  It  lies  upon  the 
upturned  edge  of  the  primitive  range,  which  extends 
through  Westchester  County  and  New  England  into' 
Canada.  The  upper  and  middle  sections  are  rough  and 
broken,  from  the  almost  constant  outcropping  of  the 
rock.  The  ground  here  is  of  very  varied  surface,  some- 
times reaching  an  elevation  above  tide-water  of  from 
seventy  to  one  hundred  and  thirty  feet,  forming  pre- 
cipitous hills  and  deep  valley  stretches.  There  is  a 
line  of  elevation  along  the  western  side  of  the  islandr 
from  which  the  ground  descends  to  the  Hudson  and 
East  rivers.  It  is  on  the  eastern  slope  of  this  range- 
that  the  park  has  |>een  constructed.  In  form,  it  is  an 
elongated  parallelogram,  extending  north  and  south 
about  two  and  a  half  miles,  and  in  width  half  a  mile; 
lying  between  Fifty-ninth  street  and  One  hundred  audi 
tenth  street,  in  length,  and  between  Fifth  Avenue  on* 
the  east,  and  the  Eighth  Avenue  on  the  west.  The 
lower  extremity  is  about  five  miles  from  the  Battery  at 
the  south  end  of  the  island,  and  nearly  the  same  dis- 
tance from  Spuyten  Duyvel  Creek  at  the  opposite  ex- 
tremity. From  the  western  side  to  the  Hudson  is 
three-quarters  of  a  mile,  and  from  the  eastern  side  to 
the  East  River  nearly  a  mile.  The  distance  from  one 
end  of  the  grounds  to  the  other  is  as  great  as  that  from, 
the  Battery  to  Union  Square,,  and  tha  breadth  is 


12 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


great  as  the  space  between  the  Bowling  Green  and  the 
City  Hall.  Its  total  area  is  eight  hundred  and  forty- 
three  acres,  which  is  more  than  seven  times  the  united 
extent  of  all  the  other  squares  and  public  places  in  the 
city.  To  the  measurement  here  given,  there  may  be 
added  nineteen  acres  more,  which  are  contained  in  the 
ground  known  as  Manhattan  Square,  lying  near  the 
centre  of  the  western  side  of  the  park,  and  which  has 
been  placed  by  the  city  under  the  care  of  the  Park 
Commissioners,  to  be  improved  and  used  in  connection 
with  the  park  proper.  Manhattan  Square  extends  from 
Seventy-seventh  to  Eighty-first  street,  and  from  the 
Eighth  to  the  Ninth  Avenue.  It  is  reached  from  the 
park  by  roads  passing  under  the  high  grade  of  the 
Eighth  Avenue  at  this  locality,  and  is  intended  for  use, 
ultimately,  as  a  zoological  garden. 

The  park  far  exceeds  in  extent  any  other  cultivated 
pleasure-grounds  in  the  United  States,  and  compares, 
in  this  respect,  favorably  with  the  most  famous  works 
of  the  kind  in  the  Old  World — surpassing,  indeed,  many 
of  wide  repute  and  great  age,  as  may  be  seen  by  a 
glance  at  the  measurements  given  in  the  following 
table : — 

Extent  of  the  Central  Parle  as  compared  with  the 
other  great  pleasure-grounds  of  the  United  States 
and  Europe : 


Acres. 


Central  Park,  in  New  York  . 

Hyde  Park,  in  London  

Ker  ington  Park,  in  London 
Regent's  Park,  in  London  . . , 
Victoria  Park,  in  London  . . . 


838 
389 
227 
372 
284 


CENTRAL  PARK.  13 

Acres. 

St.  James1  Park,  in  London   S3 

Greenwich  Park,  in  London   174 

Windsor — Great  Park,  near  London   3500 

"     —Little  Park,    "       "    300 

Hampton  Court  and  Bushby  Park,  near  London. .  1842 

Richmond  Park,  England   2468 

Kew  Gardens,          "    684 

Battersea  Park,  London   175 

Phoenix  Park,  in  Dublin   1752 

Gla-gow  Green,  in  Glasgow   136 

Gardens  at  Versailles   3000 

Bois  de  Boulogne,  in  Paris   2158 

Tzarskoe  Selo,  St.  Petersburg   350 

Thiergarten,  Berlin   200 

Englishher  Garten,  Munich   500 

Prater  Garten,  Vienna     1500 

Park  of  Schoenbrun,  near  Vienna   711 

Park  and  Garden  at  Madgeburg   120 

Birkenhead  Park,  near  Liverpool   190 

Druid  Hill  Park,  Baltimore    550 

Common,  Boston,  Massachusetts   50 

Prospect  Hill  Park,  Brooklyn,  Xew  York   267 

The  extent  of  the  Central  Park  as  compared  icith  that 
of  other  paries  and  squares  in  Xeic  York : 

Acres. 

Battery   10 

Park— City  Hall   10 

Hudson  Square   4 

Washington  Square   9 

Tompkins' Square   10 

Union  Place   3 


14 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


Acres. 

Stuyvesant  Square   3 

Gramercy  Park   1 

Madison  Park   6 

Bloomingdale  Square   18 

Hamilton  Square   15 

Observatory  Place   25 

Manhattan  Square   19 

Mount  Morris   20 

Total   153 

Central  Park   838 


GENERAL  PLAN  OF  THE  PAPvK. 

The  park  is  virtually  divided  crosswise  into  three 
sections  of  unequal  extent,  by  reason  of  the  position, 
near  the  centre,  of  the  reservoirs  of  the  Croton  aque- 
duct. The  southern  portion,  which  has  heen  hereto- 
fore known,  and  which  will,  no  doubt,  continue  to  be 
known,  as  the  Lower  Park,  contains  an  area  of  about 
three  hundred  and  thirty -six  acre^,  extending  from 
Ffty-ninth  to  Seventy-ninth  street — the  lower  margin 
of  the  old  reservoir.  This  part  of  the  domain  was  the 
first  which  was  improved,  and  it  has  heretofore  been, 
and  may  almost  be  said  to  be  still,  the  park  itself — the 
visitors  generally,  excepting  those  in  carriages  or  on 
horseback,  rarely  extending  their  explorations  further 
at  present. 

T\e  Croton  Lakes,  known  as  the  old  and  the  new 
reservoirs,  occupy  much  of  the  central  division,  lying 
between  Seventy-ninth  street  and  Ninety-sixth  street, 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


15 


leaving  only  comparatively  narrow  spaces  for  the  park 
lawns  and  drives  and  walks  on  either  side,  east  and 
west. 

Above  the  reservoirs,  and  reaching  to  the  upper  ex- 
tremity of  the  grounds  at  One  Hundred  and  Tenth 
street,  is  the  section  popularly  known  as  the  Upper 
Park.  This  division,  as  we  have  just  said,  has  thus  far 
been  but  little  frequented,  comparatively,  both  from  the 
reason  that  it  has  but  recently  been  constructed,  and 
that  it  is  more  remote  from  the  city  proper, — visitors 
usually  exhausting  themselves  before  it  can  be  reached, 
in  exploring  the  multiform  beauties  of  the  lower  and 
more  readily  accessible  grounds. 

The  Upper  Park  has,  however,  from  its  superior 
topographical  character,  greater  picturesque  capabilities 
than  any  other  portion  of  the  grounds,  and  will  become 
in  due  time  the  most  popular  resort.  The  landscape 
there  is  bolder,  the  hill  ranges  more  imposing,  and  the 
valleys,  ravines,  dad  brooks  of  more  striking  character 
than  below;  while  the  distant  views  and  glimpses  of 
the  wide  world  away  beyond  the  park  are,  there,  of 
extraordinary  extent  and  beauty. 

It  has  obviously  been  the  purpose  so  far  of  the  com- 
missioners and  engineers  of  the  park,  in  its  construc- 
tion, to  produce  an  effect  of  simple,  varied,  rural, 
natural  landscape,  as  widely  distinguished  as  possible 
from  the  architectural  effect  of  the  all-surrounding  city 
— to  create,  indeed,  a  veritable  rus  in  urbe^  with  such 
art  embellishments,  of  course,  and  such  architectural 
structures  as  the  character  of  the  place  and  its  intended 
use  by  great  masses  of  people  might  need.*  The  topog- 
raphy of  the  grounds  afforded  especial  opportunities 


16 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


for  such  an  effect, — the  uneven  surfaces,  and  the  rugged, 
rocky  projections  and  elevations,  the  winding  brooks, 
and  even  the  dark  jungles,  so  forbidding  in  their  uncul- 
tivated and  neglected  state,  presenting  to  the  discern- 
ing eye  and  the  skilful  hand  motives  which  required 
only  to  be  judiciously  assisted  to  produce  the  most 
raried  and  pleasing  results. 

To  what  extent  the  present  natural  and  rural  character 
of  the  grounds  may  be  made  to  yield  to  the  more  purely 
artistic,  remains  to  be  seen.  Art  embellishment  in  the 
form  of  sculpture  and  architecture,  will  harmonize  most 
agreeably  with  the  landscape  aspect,  if  not  employed  to 
excess;  but  it  is  a  grave  query  whether  it  would  be 
judicious  to  so  crowd  the  park  with  buildings  and 
monuments,  however  beautiful  and  picturesque  in  them- 
selves, as  to  virtually  cut  it  up  into  a  catalogue  of  little 
parks,  surrounding  structures  which  may  be  seen  just 
as  well  in  the  thronged  streets. 

It  may  perhaps  be  regretted,  if  there  is  any  thing  to 
regret  in  the  admirable  design  and  execution  of  this 
noble  work,  that  the  plan  pursued  has  necessitated  the 
use  of  so  many  structures  in  the  form  of  bridges  and 
archways  as  are  to  be  found  in  the  Lower  Park,  although 
a  bridge  is  in  its  nature  essentially  picturesque.  Never- 
theless the  bridges  serve  so  excellent  a  purpose,  and  are 
so  ingeniously  adapted  to  their  especial  use,  to  say 
nothing  of  their  architectural  beauty  and  variety,  that 
they  will  not  only  be  welcomed,  but  will  be  regarded 
as  one  of  the  happiest  and  most  useful  features  in  the 
p;  (k  construction,  serving  as  they  do  to  carry  the  car- 
riage-drives, the  bridle-paths  and  the  foot- walks,  over 
and  under  each  other,  in  such  manner  that  the  visitor 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


17 


may  pursue  either  drive,  ride,  or  walk,  for  miles  and 
miles  throughout  the  whole  winding  tour  of  the  grounds 
without  ever  once  having  occasion  to  intrude  upon  or 
to  be  intruded  upon  by  the  others.  This  very  felicitous 
effect  we  shall  see  hereafter  more  fully  in  our  tour  of 
the  grounds. 

Carriage  Roads. — The  great  feature  in  the  park 
design  has  been  the  construction  of  suitable  carriage 
roads,  a  feature  which  has  been  so  thoroughly  realized 
under  the  careful  supervision  of  Mr.  William  H.  Grant, 
the  engineer-in-chief,  that  the  visitor  may  now  drive, 
within  the  area  of  the  park,  over  no  less  than  nine  and 
a  half  miles  of  charming  macadamized  and  gravelled 
roads,  winding  their  devious  ways  through  valleys,  by 
lakes  and  .brooklets,  along  hill-ridges  and  precipices, 
now  peering  into  shady  glens,  and  now  looking  abroad 
over  the  wide  arcadian  acres  to  the  busy  world  without; 
roads  so  admirable  in  construction  and  finish  that  slip- 
pered feet  might  almost  tread  them  with  ease  and 
pleasure. 

Bridle  Roads, — Another  prominent  feature  in  the 
plan  was  provision  for  equestrian  exercise.  This  was 
achieved,  of  course,  even  on  the  construction  of  the 
carriage  roads ;  but  apart  therefrom  and  entirely  distinct, 
the  park  affords  five  miles  and  a  half  of  horseback  or 
bridle  road,  as  beautifully  finished  and  as  varied  and 
attractive  in  its  course  as  the  grand  drive  itself;  the 
road  crossing  the  drives  and  walks,  here,  there,  and 
everywhere,  as  before  intimated,  by  means  of  picturesque 
archways  over  or  underneath  it,  but  never  leaving  the 
bridle-path  proper. 

Walks. — After  tne  drives  and  the  bridle-roads,  and 
2* 


18 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


more  important  than  either,  as  interesting  most  the 
greatest  number,  was  the  matter  of  promenades  and 
walks.  Of  these  delightful  facilities,  the  park  affords, 
within  its  reach  of  two  and  a  half  miles  by  half  a  mile, 
a  devious  and  ever-changing  stroll  of  twenty-seven 
miles;  which,  considering  the  many  objects  to  detain 
and  interest  the  visitor  by  the  way,  is  as  long  a  summer 
morning's  ramble  as  most  people  would  care  to  in- 
dulge in. 

This  little  walk  will  lead  the  visitor,  by  wide  meadow 
stretches,  along  the  margin  of  gentle  lakes,  into  dark 
glens  and  caves,  up  toilsome  acclivities,  through  bosky 
groves  and  tangled  thickets,  over  broad  terraces,  studded 
everywhere  with  pleasant  seats  and  rustic  bowers,  in- 
viting to  quiet  rest  and  luxurious  repose. 

Transverse  Roads. — A  novel  and  peculiar  feature  in 
the  construction  of  the  park,  is  called  in  Jie  park 
nomenclature  the  u  Transverse  Road."  These  roads, 
which  are  four  in  number,  do  not  concern  the  visitor  at 
all,  but  are  provided  for  the  use  of  the  outside  world, 
being  in  the  park  but  not  of  it.  They  were  provided, 
most  judiciously,  to  obviate  the  trouble  which  would 
have  been  caused  by  so  long  an  interruption  of  the  pas- 
sage from  the  eastern  to  the  western  side  of  the  city, 
by  the  great  length  of  the  park.  They  traverse  the 
breadth  of  the  park  from  Sixty-fifth,  Seventy-ninth, 
Eighty-fifth,  and  Ninety-seventh  streets,  entering  on  the 
Fifth  Avenue,  Sixty-ninth  street,  Manhattan  Square, 
Eighty-sixth  and  Ninety-seventh  streets  on  the  Eighth 
Avenue.  Drives  and  walks  cross  these  traffic  roads  in 
such  a  manner  that  the  trees  and  shrubbery  hide  them 
from  view  for  the  most  part,  so  that  they  are  rarely 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


19 


noticeable  in  the  park  except  at  their  extremities,  where 
they  unite  with  the  exterior  streets.  They  thus  furnish 
a  direct  means  of  transit  across  the  park  without  caus- 
ing inconvenience  to  visitors.  The  park  too,  not  being 
directly  accessible  from  these  covered  ways,  they  may 
be  traversed  at  will  by  night,  when  the  park  itself  is 
closed.  The  archways  used  in  the  construction  of  the 
Transverse  Eoads  are  plain  in  design,  being  made  solely 
for  use,  and  not  as  picturesque  objects. 

The  Bridges. — The  bridges  and  archways,  not  in- 
cluding those  on  the  transverse  roads  just  spoken  of, 
are  forty-three  in  number,  and  serve  to  traverse  the 
lakes,  and  ponds,  and  brooks,  or  to  conduct  the  drives 
and  walks  over  or  under  each  other.  They  are  costly 
and  picturesque  structures,  in  every  variety  of  design 
and  of  material ;  some  being  imposing  works  of  marble 
and  other  rare  stones ;  some  of  iron ;  some  of  brick ; 
aud  others,  again,  of  wood — the  latter  material  being 
used  in  the  smaller  and  more  rustic  works. 

The  Lake*. — The  lakes  of  the  park  are  of  great  ex- 
tent and  beauty,  *s  we  shall  see  when  we  come  by  and 
by  to  survey  the  ground  in  detail.  The  nucleus  for 
these  lovely  waters  was  found  in  the  springs  and  pools 
which  abounded  before  the  ground  began  to  be  culti- 
vated ;  though  they  have  been  greatly  increased,  and 
are  now  amply  fed  from  the  Croton  reservoirs.  The 
shores  have  in  .all  cases  been  preserved  in  their  original 
natural  form,  excepting  where  boat-landings  have  been 
erected,  or  in  the  case  of  architectural  works  touching 
the  banks.  The  total  area  of  the  waters  of  the  park  is 
estimated  at  forty -three  and  a  half  acres,  exclusive  of 
the  one  hundred  and  forty-one  acres  occupied-  by  the 


20 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


Croton  reservoirs.  The  largest  of  the  park  lakes  is 
that  lying  at  the  upper  end  of  the  Lower  Park,  between 
Seventy  second  and  Seventy-ninth  streets.  This  charm- 
ing body  of  water  is  extremely  varied  in  outline,  and 
picturesque  in  its  surroundings.  It  is  covered  with 
gay  pleasure-boats  and  gondolas,  and  a  host  of  beauti- 
ful swans  dot  its  surface.  In  winter,  it  is  the  chief 
theatre  for  the  exploits  of  thousands  of  daring  or  timid 
skaters. 

The  next  of  these  picturesque  waters  in  extent  is 
that  more  recently  constructed  at  the  extreme  north 
end  of  the  park,  and  called  the  Harlem  Lake.  The 
area  here  is  fourteen  acres. 

The  third  lake,  which  is  known  as  the  Pond,  of  nearly 
four  and  a  half  acres,  is  a  very  irregular  body  of  water, 
lying  at  the  southeast  corner  of  the  Lower  Park,  be- 
tween the  Fifth  and  the  Sixth  avenues,  and  between 
Fifty-ninth  and  Sixty-third  streets. 

The  Pool  is  a  picturesque  nook  of  about  two  and  a 
half  acres  in  the  Upper  Park,  near  the  Eighth  Avenue, 
between  One  hundred  and  first  and  One  hundred  and 
second  streets. 

Conservatory  Lake  covers  more  than  two  and  a  half 
acres  in  the  Lower  Park,  near  the  Fifth  Avenue,  and 
opposite  Seventy -fourth  street. 

Cascades. — Various  little  streams  are  found  in  the 
park,  dropping  at  times  most  agreeably  over  obstructing 
rocks.  There  are  eleven  of  these  pretty  incidents, 
which  may  properly  be  dignified  by  the  name  of 
cascades. 

Lawns. — Among  the  leading  features  of  the  original 
design  of  the  park,  which  have  been  since  accomplished. 


CENTRAL  PARK, 


21 


are  certain  broad  reaches  of  open  meadow-land.  There 
are  now  two  such  lawns  on  the  western  side  of  the 
Lower  Park ;  one  of  ten  acres  called  the  Playground, 
and  a  second,  close  by,  of  fifteen  acres,  known  as  the 
Green. 

In  the  Upper  Park,  above  the  new  reservoir,  there 
are  two  other  lawns  of  ample  area,  known  as  the  East 
and  the  West  meadows. 

Arbors. — The  grounds  abound  in  plea-ant  places  of 
halt  and  rest,  in  the  form  of  seats  and  benches  by  the 
roadside,  and  in  summer-houses  and  bowers,  rising  on 
the  summits  of  the  hills,  or  nestled  among  the  trees  and 
shrubbery.  These  little  places  are  chiefly  of  a  very 
rustic  character,  and  always  picturesque  in  design. 
They  contribute  much  to  the  general  effect  of  the  land- 
scape, besides  affording  grateful  shelter  from  sun  or 
shower. 

There  is  also  ample  provision  of  more  private  sum- 
mer-houses for  both  sexes,  hidden  here  and  there  at 
intervals  among  th,e  trees,  and  which  may  be  readily 
found,  when  needed,  by  following  the  painted  indexes 
placed  by  the  wayside. 

Refectories. — It  is  intended  also  to  provide  suitable 
houses  of  refreshment  within  the  park  grounds,  though 
only  one  such  structure  has  thus  far  been  erected.  It 
is  called  the  Casino,  and  we  shall  invite  the  visitor  to 
its  hospitalities  in  a  later  page  of  this  volume. 

In  the  course  of  time,  similar  edifices  will  be  re- 
quired and  supplied  in  other  portions  of  the  park ;  for 
the  honest  exploration  of  the  far-reaching  ways  and 
by-ways  is  very  appetizing,  and  demands  much  susten- 
ance— a  due  provision  for  the  inner  man  generally  con- 


22 


CENTRAL  PAKE. 


tributing  much  towards  enlarging  the  capacity  to  per- 
ceive and  enjoy  the  surrounding  beauties  of  nature 
and  art. 

COST  OF  THE  PAEK. 

The  cost  of  the  lands  taken  for  the  park  was  $4,815,- 
671.60,  and  the  expenditure  for  construction,  from  May 
1,  1857,  to  January  1,  1865,  was  $4,368,136.50,  making 
a  total  outlay  up  to  the  latter  date  of  $9,183,808.10. 
The  interest  at  six  per  cent,  on  the  cost  of  purchase  and 
of  construction,  added  to  the  annual  outlay  for  main- 
tenance, will  be  equal  to  a  daily  rental  for  the  park  of 
eighteen  to  twenty  thousand  dollars, — a  rather  high 
figure  even  in  the  present  days  of  lavish  expenditure ; 
but  the  city,  fortunately,  if  not  rich,  will  be  no  poorer 
for  the  outlay,  returned  as  it  is  with  generous  interest^ 
in  many  ways. 

THE  PAEK  TEEES. 

The  one  great  beauty  wanting  in  the  park,  which 
neither  money  nor  skill  can  wholly  supply,  and  for 
which  slow,  steady-footed  Time  alone  must  be  relied 
upon,  is  the  crowning  beauty  and  grace  of  vegetation, 
especially  in  large  umbrageous  trees. 

The  site  of  the  park,  as  we  have  already  said,  was  not 
promising  in  this  respect.  It  was  a  rough  and  rocky 
spot,  with  no  grand  forests,  and  no  soil  to  produce  such 
growth.  W^th  the  exception  of  isolated  trees,  and  ot 
clumps  sparsely  scattered  here  and  there,  the  trees, 
though  numerous  enough,  were  but  small  and  of  by  no 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


23 


means  luxuriant  life.  The  vegetation  originally  found 
on  the  ground  has  not  only  been  since  much  improved 
by  careful  nursing,  but  immense  additions  have  been 
made  by  planting,  and  new  beds  of  fertile  earth  have 
been  created,— all  giving  promise  of  a  future  growth  far 
beyond  the  natural  capabilities  of  the  original  soil,  and 
commensurate  with  the  uses  and  requirements  of  the 
place  as  a  sylvan  retreat. 

In  the  surveys  of  the  grounds,  preparatory  to  the 
work  of  construction,  a  careful  memorandum  was  made 
of  the  botany  of  the  region,  from  which  it  was  found 
that,  in  the  original  area  of  the  park,  extending  north- 
ward at  that  period  to  One  Hundred  and  Sixth  street 
only,  there  were  growing  ^bout  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  trees  and  shrubs,  of  about  seventy  different 
species,  the  names  and  numbers  of  the  chief  of  which, 
as  seen  in  the  subjoined  table,  it  may  be  interesting  to 
know: 


Silver-leaved  Maple  (tree)   9,000 

Common  Alder  (shrub)   12,000 

Privet  Andromeda  (shrub)   2,500 

White  Wild  Honeysuckle  (shrub)   600 

Red  Birch  (*hrub)   1,000 

Paper  Mulberry  (tree)   500 

Water  Beech  (tree)   5,000 

Chestnut  (tree)   500 

Catalpa  (tree)     50 

Bitter  Sweet  (climbing  plant)    

Sugar  Berry  (small  tree)    

Virgin's  Bower  (climbing  plant)   200 

Sweet  Pepper-bush  (shrub)   1,500 


CENTRAL  PARK. 

p 

White  Varied  Dog- wood  (shrub)   1,500 

American  Dog-wood  (small  tree)   3,000 

"Wild  Filbert  (shrub)   6,000 

Persimmon  (tree)   500 

Beech  (large  tree)   2,000 

White  Ash  (tall  tree)   100 

Honey  Locust  (medium-sized  tree)   100 

Witch  Hazel  (shrub)   1,500 

Black  Walnut  (tall  tree)    2,Q00 

Red  Cedar  (tree-evergreen)   few. 

Wild  Allspice  (shrub)   250 

Sassafras  (middle-sized  tree)   20,000 

Sweet  Gum  (tall  tree)   6,000 

Tulip-tree  £0  to  80  feet  high)   500 

Bay  Berry  (shrub)   6,000 

Button  Wood]  sycamore  (tall  tree)   3,000. 

Balsam  Poplar  (tall  tree)   50 

Cotton-tree  (40  to  60  feet  high)   50 

American  Aspen  (small  tree)    100 

Choke  Cherry  (shrub)   2,000 

White  Oak  (tall  tree)   1,500 

Red  Oak  (tall  tree)   2,000 

Pin  Oak  (small  tree)    

Common  Locust-tree   3,000 

American  Elm  (tall  tree)    6,000 

Maple-leaved  Arrow-wood  (shrub)   5,000 

Mountain-bush  Cranberry  (shrub) . . .  abundant. 

Fox  Grape  (climbing  vine)   2,000 

American  Ivy  (climbing  vine)   500 


Many  of  the  trees  and  shrubs  and  vines  included  in 
e  preceding  catalogue  have,  of  course,  been  necessarily 


CENTRAL  PARK.  25 

destroyecTor  removed  in  the  process  of  the  park  con- 
struction, while  others  have  been  carefully  teuded  and 
their  growth  improved. 

Large  numbers  of  additional  trees  and  shrubs  of 
various  kinds  have  been  planted  from  year  to  year,  and 
others  are  being  continually  set  out,  after  due  training, 
in  the  nurseries  of  the  Upper  Park.  More  than  two 
hundred  thousand  tree?,  shrubs,  and  plants  have  been 
added  to  the  original  stock  since  the  commencement  of 
the  work  on  the  park — some  of  them  being  large  trees 
transplanted,  as  along  the  great  promenade  of  the  Mall. 

GEOLOGY  OF  THE  PARK. 

Preparatory  to  the  work  of  construction  in  the  park, 
a  careful  examination  was  made  of  the  geological  struc- 
ture of  the  grounds,  a  correct  understanding  of  such 
details  being  of  course  essential  to  a  proper  pictorial 
treatment,  and  es  ecially  in  determining  upon  the  direc- 
tion of  roads,  the  best  system  of  drainage,  and  tho 
nature  and  capacities  of  the  soils. 

The  rucks  embraced  within  the  original  area  are — 
^  First— Gneiss  (micaceous  gneiss.) 

Second — Mica  slate. 

Third — Granite,  in  numerous  intrusive  veins. 

Fourth — Diluvial  or  drift  deposits,  including  boulders. 

Fifth — Soils  derived  from  the  decomposition  of  the 
gneiss  and  associated  rocks. 

The  strata  of  gneiss  exhibit  no  uniformity  with  regard 
to  their  strike  and  dip.  They  show  everywhere  violent 
dislocations,  owing  to  the  intrusion  of  various  veins  of 
3 


20 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


granite.  In  some  localities  they  are  in  a  vertical  posi- 
tion or  nearly  so,  varying  from  eighty  degrees  northwest 
to  eighty  degrees  southeast;  in  others  they  vary  from 
forty  degrees -to  sixty  degrees  to  the  northwest  and  to 
the  southeast.  The  prevailing  direction  of  the  strike  is 
north- north  east. 

Mica  slate  occurs  in  narrow  layers  and  bands.  There 
are  also  found  among  the  minerals — 

Quartz,  of  various  shades  of  white  and  gray,  as  con- 
stituents of  gneiss,  mica,  slate,  and  granite. 

Feldspar,  in  two  varieties. 

Adularia,  in  a  boulder  of  gneiss. 

Red  garnet,  in  compact  grains  and  in  small  rhombic 
dodecahedrons,  m  gneiss,  mica,  slate,  and  granite. 

Magnetite,  in  grains  and  small  masses  in  granite. 

Black  tourmaline,  in  gneiss  and  granite. 

Chlorite,  in  gneiss  and  granite. 

Phosphate  of  iron  and  manganese,  an  altered  form  ot 
tetraphyline  in  feldspar,  on  the  line  of  contact  between 
gneiss  and  a  vein  of  granite. 

Labradorite* 

Pyroxene. 

Of  the  rocks  found  in  the  park,  the  gray  gneiss  is  best 
adapted  for  purposes  of  construction,  owing  to  its  beings* 
hard,  easily  dressed,  and  but  little  affected  by  exposure 
to  the  atmosphere. 

The  interlaminated  gneiss  is  also  a  good  building 
stone,  but  more  difficult  to  dress  than  the  gray  gneiss. 
The  coarse  kinds  of  granite  decompose  too  rapidly  when 
exposed,  and  the  mica  slate"  is  totally  unfit  for  use  on 
account  of  its  rapid  disintegration. 

The  localities  in  the  Lower  Park  where  the  rocks  are 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


27 


perhaps  legist  exposed  to  an  examination,  illustrating 
their  superstructure,  are  the  areas  "between  Seventh  and 
Eighth  avenues,  Fifty-ninth  and  Sixty-first  streets, 
where  the  strike  is  from  north  ten  degrees  east  to  north 
twenty-five  degrees  east,  and  the  dip  from  seventy-five 
to  eighty-five  degrees  northwest. 

Between  Seventh  and  Eighth  avenues,  Sixty-second 
and  Sixty-third  streets,  where  the  rock  dips  at  the  sur- 
face from  eighty  degrees  northwest  in  perpendicular 
curving,  and  being  considerably  contorted  at  a  depth  of 
a  few  feet  below  the  surface. 

Between  Sixth  and  Seventh  avenues,  Sixty-first  and 
Sixty-second  streets,  the  strike  is  north  fifty  degrees 
east,  the  dip  is  from  perpendicular  to  eighty  degrees 
southeast. 

Between  Seventh  and  Eighth  avenues,  Sixty-fourth 
and  Sixty -fifth  streets,  the  strike  is  north  forty-five 
degrees.east,  the  dip  from  perpendicular  to  fifty  degrees 
southeast. 

On  Seventh  Avenue  between  Sixty-fifth  and  Sixty- 
sixth  streets  the  dip  is  forty-five  degrees  northwest. 

The  park  has  been  carefully  and  judiciously  designed 
and  constructed,  in  accordance  with  the  natural  con- 
-  figuration  of  its  surface.  The  hills,  and  valleys,  and 
streams  have  been  accepted  as  the  perfect  work  of  the 
great  Artist,  and  the  only  effort  made  has  been  to  dis- 
play afld  heighten  their  beauty,  not  to  destroy  or  alter 
them.  Thus  ravines  have  been  deepened,  elevations 
have  been  increased;  here  the  broken  rock  has  been 
hidden  by  turf  and  trailing  vines,  and  there  it  has  been 
exposed  in  bolder  masses ;  and  the  waters  have  been 
led  over  precipices  or  collected  in  broad  pellucid  lakes. 


28 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


THE  ATTENDANCE  AT  THE  PARK. 

The  great  and  ever-increasing  popular  interest  in  the 
establishment  and  development  of  the  new  park  is  strik- 
ingly evinced  by  the  large  and  constantly  growing  num- 
ber of  visitors.  Records  are  kept  by  the  authorities  of 
the  entrances  at  the  various  gates,  which  exhibit  some 
curious  and  perhaps  interesting  statistics  in  this  respect. 

From  these  chronicles  we  learn  that  more  than  four 
millions  of  people  entered  the  park  in  1862,  nearly  four 
and  a  half  millions  in  1863,  and  nearly  six  millions  in 
1864.  During  the  latter  year,  the  number  of  visitors 
on  foot  was  2,295,199  ;  the  number  on  horseback 
100,399;  and  the  number  of  carriages  1,148,161. 

The  largest  number  of  pedestrians  entering  the  park 
during  any  one  month  of  the  year  was  555,66b,  in 
January — that  is,  during  the  skating  season. 

The  greatest  number  of  equestrians  during  any  one 
month  was  14,802,  in  June,  and  the  greatest  number  of 
carriages  within  a  like  period,  was  147,344.  in  May. 

The  visitors  on  the  Sundays  of  1864  numbered 
882,123  on  foot;  15,860  on  horseback;  199,590  car- 
riages; and  20,721  sleighs. 

During  the  same  year,  the  number  of  visitors  be- 
tween the  hours  of  five  and  six  o'clock  in  the  morning 
was — pedestrians,  1,067;  equestrians,  858  f*  and  vehicles, 
lj'34;  which  speaks  well  for  the  habits  of  the  people  in 
the  matter  of  early  rising,  though  this  was,  of  course, 
during  the  summer  months. 

Th^  largest  number  of  pedestrians  entering  the  park 
at  any  one  hour  of  the  day  through  the  year  was 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


20 


428,910  between  three  and  four  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon; of  equestrians  during  the  same  space,  13,288, 
also  from  three  to  four  o'clock  p.  m.  ;  and  of  carriages, 
225.330  between  four  and  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon. 

The  number  of  visitors  on  foot  at  the  park,  between 
the  hours  of  ten  and  eleven  o'clock  at  night,  during  the 
year,  was  3,800;  of  equestrians,  14;  and  of  vehicles, 
2,4.96. 

The  largest  number  of  pedestrians  visiting  the  park 
in  any  one  day  in  the  year  1864  was  45,129,  on  the  17th 
of  January,  during  the  skating  season.  The  smallest 
number  of  pedestrians  in  any  one  day  of  the  same  year 
was  46,  on  the  30th  of  March.  The  Largest  number  on 
horseback  during  any  one  day  was  1,075,  on  the  12th 
of  June;  and  the  smallest  number,  one  only,  on  the 
30th  of  March.  The  largest  number  of  vehicles  in  any 
one  day  of  the  year  was  13,814,  on  the  29th  of  May; 
and  the  smallest  number  was  101^  on  the  26th  of 
March. 

ACCESS  TO  THE  PARK. 

The  public  means  of  conveyance  to  the  park  from  all 
parts  of  the  city  are  ample — that  is,  from  the  city 
proper,  lying  below  the  park.  The  cars  of  the  Sixth 
Avenue  Railway,  for  the  city  fare  of  six  cents,  will 
leave  the  visitors  at  the  Sixth  Avenue  and  Fifty-ninth 
street  gate,  the  chief  entrance  thus  far  for  pedestrians, 
and  a  half  mile  or  more  only  from  the  Mall  the  Central 
Lake,  the  Terrace,  and  Ramble,  and  most  of  the  leading 
points  of  attraction  in  the  Lower  Park. 

Taking  the  cars  of  the  Broadway  Railroad,  or  those 


so 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


of  the  Seventh  Avenue  road,  the  visitor  will  be  dropped 
at  the  Fifty -ninth  street  and  Seventh  Avenue  entrance, 
intended  for  pedestrians  only. 

By  the  Eighth  Avenue  Railway,  the  visitor  will  reach 
the  park  at  the  southwest  corner — that  is,  at  the  junc- 
tion of  Broadway  and  the  Eighth  Avenue — a  gateway 
either  for  footmen,  equestrians,  or  carriages.  Continu- 
ing further  on  the  Eighth  Avenue  road?  which  follows 
the  western  line  of  the  park  through  its  whole  length, 
he  may  he  dropped  at  either  of  the  western  gates  on 
that  side,  which  are  placed  at  Seventy-second  street,  in 
a  line  with  the  Central  Lake,  the  Ramble,  the  Mall,  and 
other  leading  features  of  the  Lower  Park  ;  at  Seventy  - 
ninth  street  (Manhattan  Square),  in  a  line  with  the 
lower  end  of  the  Old  Reservoir,  the  Tunnel,  and  the 
Ramble ;  at  Eighty-fifth  street,  a  point  nearly  between 
the  Old  and  the  New  reservoirs ;  at  Ninety-sixth  street, 
in  a  line  with  the  upper  boundary  of  the  New  Reser- 
voir ;  or  at  One  hundredth  street,  near  the  Pool,  and 
the  great  East  Meadow  of  the  Upper  Park ;  or,  leaving 
the  cars  of  the  Eighth  Avenue  road  at  the  extreme 
upper  end  of  the  park,  he  may  enter  at  this  corner,  or 
he  may  walk  to  the  gate  at  One  hundred  and  tenth 
s+reet  and  Seventh  Avenue,  on  the  northern  boundary 
line,  and  enter  near  the  old  historical  grounds  of  the 
Upper  Park. 

By  the  Fifth  Avenue  route,  which  is  not  traversed  by 
railway,  and  only  as  far  as  Forty -second  street  by  omni- 
bus, one  may  reach  the  chief  carriage  entrance  at  Fifty- 
ninth  street  and  Fifth  Avenue.  The  other  gates  on  the 
Fifta  Avenue,  or  east  side  of  the  park,  are  located  re- 
spectively at  Seventy-second,  Seventy-ninth,  Ninetieth, 

* 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


31 


Ninety-sixth,  One  hundred  and  second,  and  One  hun- 
dred and  tenth  streets.  The  Seventy-second  and  the 
Seventy-ninth  street  entrances,  particularly  the  former, 
are  convenient  to  all  the  chief  beauties  of  the  Lower 
Park. 

The  nearest  entrance  to  the  park  at  the  northeast,  for 
carriages,  is  at  Sixth  Avenue  and  One  hundred  and 
tenth  street 

The  Xinety -sixth  street  gate  is  near  the  upper  end  of 
the  New  Reservoir;  and  that  at  One  hundred  and  sec- 
ond street  enters  near  the  middle  of  the  Upper  Park. 

Taking  the  cars  of  the  Third  Avenue  Railway,  the 
visitor  may  reach  either  of  the  Fifth  Avenue  gates  above 
named,  by  walking  across  from  the  Third  to  the  Fifth 
avenue. 

The  ears  of  the  Belt  Railway,  plying  between  the 
South  Ferry  (near  the  Battery)  and  the  park,  by  the 
line  of  the  Hudson  and  East  rivers,  will  leave  the  visitor 
at  either  of  the  Fifty-ninth  street  gates, 

THE  PARK  HOURS. 

As  a  necessary  part  of  the  police  system  of  the  park, 
for  the  proper  care  and  protection  of  the  grounds,  due 
note  will  be  made  of  entrances  and  exits,  and  the  gates 
will  be  opened  and  closed  at  fixed  hours. 

The  park  is  open,  by  the  present  schedule  of  hours, 
as  follows: 

During  the  months  of 
December,  i 

January,     >  From  7  A.  M.  to  8  p.  3£* 
February,  ) 


32 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


During  the  months  of 


March, 
April, 
May, 
June, 
October, 
November, 

July,  ) 

A  ugust,  V 
September,  ) 


>  From  6  A.  m.  to  9  P.  M. 


From  5  a.  m.  to  11  p.  M. 


And  in  the  skating  season  till  twelve  o'clock  at  night, 
at  which  hour  it  is  necessary  that  the  ice  be  cleared,  in 
order  to  fit  it  for  the  following  day. 

In  the  latter  part  of  November  and  in  the  early  part 
of  December,  and  in  March,  in  this  climate,  there  are 
but  few  persons  who  desire  to  be  either  riding  or  walk- 
ing in  the  park  after  nightfall ;  and  it  would  not  be 
economical  to  keep  the  park  open,  with  its  force  of 
keepers,  to  accommodate  the  few  who  might  desire  to  use 
it  as  a  convenience  on  their  way  out  of  or  into  the  city. 

It  is  the  general  custom  of  the  directors  of  all  the 
great  parks  in  Europe — a  custom  adopted  as  the  fruit  of 
a  long  experience — to  close  their  grounds,  earlier  or 
later,  at  night :  as,  for  example,  at  Hyde  Park,  in  Lon- 
don, where  the  gates  are  opened  at  five  a.  m.  and  are 
closed  at  ten  p.  m.  throughout  the  year ;  at  St.  James7 
Park,  in  London,  which  is  accessible  only  from  six 
a.  m.  to  nine  p.  m.  ;  and  at  the  Bois  de  Boulogne,  in 
Paris,  only  open  at  certain  hours. 


The  exterior  or  boundary  walls  of  the  park,  which 
are  now  in  process  of  construction,  are  built  of  stone, 


THE  PAEK  WALLS. 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


33 


in  a  style  varying  in  accordance  with  the  surface  of  the 
ground  and  the  grade  of  the  surrounding  streets.  The 
total  extent  0/  wall,  exclusive  of  gateways  and  of  such 
portions  as  will,  from  the  precipitousness  of  the  rock, 
require  no  inclosure,  will  he  twenty-nine  thousand  and 
twenty-five  feet,  or  less  than  six  miles.' 

The  kinds  of  stone  thus  far  used  on  these  walls  are  as 
follows : 

Gneis*,  obtained  from  the  vicinity  of  the  park,  for 
the  part  of  the  u  vertical"  wall  below  the  level  of  the 
sidewalk,  and  for  the  a  battered"  walls. 

Hudson  River  Blue-stone,  for  the  base  course  to  verti- 
cal wall  (on  Fifty-ninth  street)  at  the  level  of  the  side- 
walk. 

New  Brunswick  Freestone,  for  the  balance  of  the  ver- 
tical wall  above  the  base. 

The  general  exterior  height  of  the  walls,  where  the 
surface  of  the  park  is  nearly  even  with  or  is  depressed 
below  the  grade-line  of  the  outer  streets,  is  three  feet 
ten  inches,  and  the  inside  height  is  eight  feet. 

Outride  of  the  boundary  walls,  along  the  whole  line  of 
the  park,  there  is  a  broad  gravelled  walk,  thirty  to 
forty  feet  in  width,  planted  both  on  the  inner  and  the 
outer  edge  with  maple  or  elm  trees,  which,  when  fully 
grown,  will  produce  a  magnificent  promenade,  over- 
arched with  a  canopy  of  charming  verdure ;  while  the 
opposite  side  of  the  street,  across  the  public  carriage- 
ways, will  no  doubt  be  soon  lined  with  stately  man- 
sions or  crowded  with  gay  and  elegant  shops,  making 
of  the  outside  of  the  grounds  even  a  broad  and  beauti- 
ful boulevard. 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


THE  PARK  GATES. 

The  architecture  of  the  gateways  to  be  erected  at  the 
various  entrances  to  the  park  is  not  yet  determined, 
though  it  is  understood  and  expected  that  it  will  be  in 
generous  accordance  with  the  noble  requirements  of 
the  case. 

It  is  obyious  that  these  important  structures — the 
portals  of  so  magnificent  a  domain — should  be  them- 
selves of  the  most  imposing  character — replete  with  all 
that  is  beautiful,  and  commanding  in  design  and  exe- 
cution. 

It  is  proposed  to  give  the  various  gates  certain  names 
of  dignity  and  significance,  in  the  spirit  of  the  beautiful 
and  meaning  symbolism  found  in  appellations  e(  similar 
structures  in  ancient  times,  of  which  many  examples 
are  seen  in  the  sacred  writings, — some  drawn  from  local 
circumstances,  as  the  Corner  Gate,  the  Yalley'Gate,  the  A 
Prison  Gate,  the  Gate  of  the  Fountain ;  and  again,  others 
named  in  especial  honor,  as  the  King's  Gate,  the  "Gate 
of  the  Children  of  the  People" — all  dignifying  the  "  gate" 
as  the  emblem  and  index  of  the  spot  or  place  it  served 
to  guard. 

In  this  spirit,  the  committee  on  the  nomenclature  of 
the  park  gates  have  advised  the  naming  of  them  as 
follows,  with  the  expectation  that  the  several  designs 
shall  include  the  symbolical  sculpture  which  the  appel- 
lations suggest : ' 


5th  avenue  and  59th  street. 
6th-   "       "    59th  " 


The  Scholars'  Gate. 
The  Artists'  Gate. 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


35 


7th  avenue  and  59th  street.    The  Artisans'  Gate. 


8tn  " 

4  4 

59th 

1  he  Merchants  Grate. 

8tn  M 

72  a 

Ihe  Women's  Gate. 

otn  " 

u 

79th 

Ihe  Hunters  Gate. 

8th  " 

8oth 

Ihe  Manners7  Gate. 

otn 

u 

uotn 

({ 

Ihe  Gate  oi  All  oaints. 

8  th  " 

100th 

The  Boys  Gate. 

5th  " 

72d 

The  Children's  Gate. 

5  th  " 

79th 

The  Engineers'  and 

Miners'  Gate. 

5th  " 

14 

90th 

II 

The  Strangers1  Gate 

5th  " 

u 

96th 

ti 

The  Woodman's  Gate. 

5th  " 

a 

102d 

14 

The  Girls'  Gate. 

6th  " 

a 

110th 

a 

The  Farmers'  Gate. 

7th  " 

a 

110th 

u 

The  Warriors'  Gate. 

Mr.  Richard  M.  Hunt,  the  architect,  has  made  impos- 
ing monumental  drawings  in  this  spirit  of  the  past,  for 
the  four  gates  required  for  the  lower  boundary  of  the 
park  on  Fifty-ninth  street,  which  designs  have  been 
accepted  by  the  commissioners,  but  for  some  reason: 
have  not  yet  been  executed. 

THE  CROTON  RESERVOIRS. 

The  Croton  Reservoirs,  which  lie  near  the  centre  of 
the  park,  were  located,  and  one  of  them  was  con- 
structed long  before  the  occupation  of  the  region  for 
its  present  uses,  so  that  they  became  a  necessity  instead 
of  a  Choice,  as  prominent  incidents  in  the  work.  This 
necessity,  which  at  first  seemed  to  be  a  matter  ot 


36  CENTRAL  PARK. 

regret,  now  promises  to  be  one  of  felicitation  rather,  so 
ingeniously  have  the  park  engineers  turned  it  to  account. 

The  Old  Reservoir  is  situated  between  Seventy-ninth 
and  Eighty-sixth  streets,  and  may  be  most  directly 
reached  by  the  Seventy-ninth  street  gates  on  the  Fifth 
and  the  Eighth  avenues.  The  lower  line  of  the  reser- 
voir forms  the  virtual  boundary  of  the  Lower  Park,  on 
Vista  Hill,  at  the  head  of  the  Ramble.  It  is  a  parallel- 
ogram in  form,  1,826  feet  in  length  and*  835  feet  wide, 
covering  an  area  of  thirty-one  acres,  and  holding 
150,000, 000,  gallons  of  water.  It  is  constructed  of  very 
solid  masonry,  forming  ponderous  inclosing  walls 
twenty  feet  broad  on  the  top  and  sloping  down  on 
either  side.  It  is  divided  into  two  sections,  one  having 
a  depth  of  thirty  and  the  other  of  twenty  feet. 

The  top  of  the  huge  walls  or  banks  affords  a  broad 
and  beautiful  promenade  when  the  sun's  rays  are  not 
too  fervid  or  the  winds  too  rough.  The  park  walks 
lead  here  and  there  to  this  fine  esplanade;  the  drives 
and  rides  now  and  then  rise  to  a  level  with  it,  and 
present  unexpected  peeps  for  a  moment  at  the  broad, 
blue  waters;  while  the  grading  of  the  roads  and  the 
disposition  of  the  vegetation  are  m  such  wise  as  to  best 
relieve  the  original  monotony  of  the  continuous  walls, 
with  their  formal  lines  and  lofty  position. 

The  New  Reservoir,  which  was  demanded  by  the 
increased  needs  of  the  growing  population  of  the  city, 
is  a  very  much  larger  work  and  of  much  more  recent 
date.  It  was  constructed  at  the  same  time  as  the  park 
itself,  and  is,  indeed,  yet  hardly  completed.  It  lies  just 
a^ove  the  other  structure,  and  extends  from  Bighty- 
sixth  to  Ninety-sixth  streets,  occupying  nearly  the 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


31 


whole  width  of  the  park.  The  area  of  this  grand  basin 
is  one  hundred  and  six  acres,  and  its  capacity,  when 
full,  is  one  thousand  millions  of  gallons.  It  may  be 
reached  at  once  at  its  northern  and  southern  extremities 
by  the  Ninetieth  and  Ninety-sixth  street  gates  on  the 
Fifth  Avenue,  or  by  the  Eighty-fifth  and  Ninety-sixth 
street  entrances  on  the  Eighth  Avenue.  One  of  the 
four  transverse  or  traffic  roads  cross  the  park  just  above, 
and  another  below  it.  Just  above  the  New  Reservoir 
are  the  East  and  West  meadows,  and  beyond  all  the 
beautiful  incidents  of  the  Upper  Park.  The  New 
Reservoir,  unlike  its  older  neighbor,  is  very  irregular  in 
form,  but  is  inclosed,  as  the  other,  in  high  walls  of 
massive  stone,  which  seem  strong  enough  to  outlive  the 
ages.  The  summit  of  the  walls  serves  as  a  promenade 
for  the  park  visitors,  as  do  the  walls  of  the  older  work ; 
though  the  walk  here  is  broader  and  the  lookout  finer, 
reaching  as  it  does  over  wider  floods  to  far  away 
scenes  beyond  the  park  limits.  The  drives  and  walks 
rise  at  intervals,  a,«  at  the  other  reservoir,  to  a  level 
with  the  top  of  the  embankments,  giving  the  tourist 
sudden  glimpses  ever  and  anon  of  the  water,  which  are 
all  the  pleasanter  from  coming  so  unexpectedly  upon 
him. 

These  massive  basins  receive  the  floods  of  the  great 
Croton  Aqueduct,  and  hold  them  in  safe-keeping  for 
the  needs  and  pleasures  of  the  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  the  surrounding  population. 

Were  they  far  less  picturesque  in  their  physique  than 
they  are,  they  would,  to  the  citizen  at  lea>t,  still  be 
objects  of  most  happy  contemplation,  in  remembrance 
of  the  important  work  they  help  to  perform. 

4 


38 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


The  Gate  Rouses  at  the  upper  and  lower  sides  of  the 
New  Keservoir  are  massive  stone  structures,  of  great 
interest  in  respect  both  to  the  architecture  and  their 
superb  hydraulic  machinery. 

Looking  out  upon  the  reservoirs,  it  will  be  pleasant 
to  recall  such  a  history  as  may  be  told  in  a  few  words 
of  the  great  achievement  of  which  they  form  a  part. 

The  Croton  Aqueduct  conduces  the  pure  brooks  of 
the  Hudson  River  highlands  to  the  city  of  New  York, 
over  a  distance  of  more  than  forty  Ernies.  The  whole  of 
this  long  journey,  from  the  Croton  Lake  where  the 
mountain  waters  are  gathered  to  the  reservoirs  of  the 
park,  is  traversed  by  a  spacious  and  costly  structure  of 
brick  and  stone,  embellished  at  frequent  intervals  with 
massive  viaducts  and  bridges,  each  one  of  which  is  in 
itself  a  fabric  of  daring  enterprise  aud  expenditure ;  and 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  which  structures — t^e  High 
Bridge  at  Harlem — comes  into  very  picturesque  view 
from  many  points  of  the  upper  grounds  of  the  park. 

The  construction  of  the  Croton  Aqueduct  was  com- 
menced in  May,  1837  (just  twenty  years  before  the  be- 
ginning of  the  park),  and  was  completed  in  June,  1842. 
On  the  27th  of  June,  the  water,  after  traversing  for  the 
first  time  the  entire  length  of  the  aqueduct,  entered 
the  receiving  reservoir  in  the  city — now  known  as  the 
Old  Keservoir  of  the  park — and,  on  the  4th  of  July  fol- 
lowing, the  floods  made  their  first  entrance  into  the  dis- 
tributing reservoir  on  the  Fifth  Avenue,  at  Forty-second 
street. 

On  the  14th  of  October,  1842,  the  completion  of  the 
greatest  work  (except,  perhaps,  the  Erie  Canal)  ever 
undertaken  by  the  State  or  the  city  of  New  York,  was 


CENTRAL  FARE. 


30 


celebrated  by  the  people  with  great  pomp  and  festival, 
amidst  the  floating  of  banners  and  the  thunder  of  can- 
non, and  with  general  jubilee  in  all  hearts. 

The  total  cost  of  the  construction  of  the  Croton 
Aqueduct  •  was,  in  round  numbers,  twelve  millions  ot 
dollars. 

THE  MARBLE  ARCH. 

The  Marble  Arch  is  an  impo.-ing  structure  in  the 
lower  portion  of  the  park,  crossed  by  the  carriage -road 
as  it  passes  by  the  lower  end  of  the  Mall,  and  traversed 
underneath  by  the  foot-path  from  the  Sixth  Avenue  gate 
to  the  Mall  and  Terrace.  After  passing  through  the 
grand  corridor  of  the  Marble  Arch,  the  visitor  ascends 
atjthe  upper  end  by  broad  flights  of  stone  steps  to  the 
level  of  the  Mall.  On  the  sides  of  the  corridor  or  in- 
terior of  the  archway,  seats  are  placed  for  the  repose  of 
the  weary  pilgrim ;  and,  by  the  steps  at  the  upper  end, 
the  passage  is  faced  by  a  niche  or  recess,  in  which  is  a 
drinking-fountain.  This  archway  is  one  of  the  most 
stately  and  costly  of  the  architectural  embellishments  of 
the  park. 

THE  MALL. 

The  Mail  is  situated  in  the  southwestern  portion  of 
the  park,  and  forms,  both  geographically  and  in  point 
of  attraction,  a  central  feature  of  its  lower  division. 
Grouped  around  the  Mall,  and  leading  to  or  from  itr 
are  many  of  the  finest  architectural  structures  and  in- 
cidents of  the  park.    The  Carriage-drive,  from  the  Fifth. 


40 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


Avenue  gate  at  Fifty-ninth  street,  leads  directly  towards 
the  Mall, — as  it  does  indeed,  more  or  less  directly,  from 
all  the  lower  entrances  to  the  grounds.  The  foot-paths 
also  tend  in  the^same  direction,  as  all  roads  lead  to 
Rome. 

The  Mall  is  the  grand  promenade  of  the  park,  and  the 
focus  of  that  portion  of  it  which  is  intended  as  an  illus- 
tration of  the  beautiful  and  the  sumptuous  in  the  art  of 
landscape  embellishment  and  culture,  in  contradistinc- 
tion to  the  rustic  and  the  picturesque  simply.  The 
grand  avenue  of  the  Mall,  instead  of  being  an  intricate 
walk  like  the  Ramble  near  by,  with  a  thousand  abrupt 
twists  and  turns,  is  a  stately  esplanade,  generous  in 
breadth,  and  perfectly  straight  and  level  in  its  course, 
planted  on  either  side  with  rows  of  noble  elms,  whose 
spreading  branches  will,  in  due  time,  cover  it  with  an 
overarching  canopy  of  green. 

The  length  of  the  Mall  is  twelve  hundred  and  twelve 
feet,  or  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  and  the  total  wddth 
is  two  hundred  and  eight  feet,  the  main  central  walk 
being  thirty-five  feet  wide,  and  the  rest  of  the  plateau 
being  covered  with  greensward.  Besides  the  row  of 
trees  on  either  side  of  the  central  gravelled  walk,  there 
are,  outside  of  them,  two  other  rows,  within  which,  also, 
paths  may  be  made.  This  promenade  is  well  furnished 
with  seats  for  the  weary,  and  at  its  extremities  are  found 
drinking-fountains  for  those  wrho  thirst.  The  elevated 
and  central  position  of  the  Mall  makes  it  an  eligible 
point  from  which  to  watch  the  teeming  life  and  fashion 
of  the  place,  since,  as  we  have  said,  the  great  circuit  or 
Drive  skirts  it  on  either  side ;  and  at  its  upper  extremity 
aio  found  the  Music  Pavilion,  the  Casino,  the  ^ine- 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


41 


covered  Walk,  the  Carriage-concourse,  the  Terrace,  and 
the  Lake. 

The  site  for  the  Shakspeare  Monument  is  on  the 
Mall,  at  the  southeast  corner  of  the  walk.  West  from 
the  centre  of  the  Mall,  and  between  it  and  the  Drive, 
may  be  seen  the  oak  and  elm  planted  by  the  Prince 
of  Wales  during  his  visit  to  the  city,  in  1860.  Xot  far 
from  the  Mall,  northeasterly,  is  the  site  of  the  Conser- 
vatory and  the  Conservatory  Lake.  Lying  west  of  the 
whole  length  of  the  Mall,  across  the  grand  Drive,  is  the 
broad  stretch  of  greensward  known  as  the  Green ;  and 
just  south  of  that,  again,  is  the  Playground,  a  beautiful 
lawn,  scarcely  inferior  in  extent  to  the  Green.  The 
hill  climbed  by  the  Ramble  from  the  shores  of  the  Lake, 
and  upon  the  top  of  which  lies  the  Old  Reservoir,  is  in 
full  view,  with  the  whole  slope  of  the  Ramble  itself, 
from  all  points  on  the  Mall. 


PARK  MUSIC. 

The  Music  Pavilion  was  erected  in  1862,  afjer  the 
admirable  design  of  Mr.  Mould.  It  stands  near  the 
head  of  the  Mall,  on  the  west,  and  is  an  exceedingly 
pretty  ornate  structure  of  the  pagoda  fashion. 

The  Music  Pavilion  is  provided  for  the  accommoda- 
tion of  the  fine  bands  which  discourse  their  winning 
strains  without  charge  to  the  assembled  multitudes  of 
the  park,  on  fine  Wednesday  and  Saturday  afternoons 
in  summer-time. 

The  free  musical  entertainments  of  the  park  are  of  a 
high  character,  the  musicians  being  skilled  in  their  art, 
4* 


42 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


and  their  selection  of  pieces  being  made  from  the  most 
famous  productions  in  the  repertories  both  of  native 
and  foreign  composers,  interspersed  with  the  national 
airs  of  all  lands. 

Some  idea  may  be  formed  of  the  popular  appreciation 
of  this  item  in  the  pleasures  of  the  park,  in  the  fact 
that  over  forty -six  thousand  persons  are  known  to  have 
assisted  at  the  performances  at  one  time;  thousands 
enjoying  the  pleasant  strains,  while  lounging  on  the 
lawns  around,  or  on  the  rustic  seats  amply  provided, 
and  other  thousands,  while  lolling  in  their  luxurious 
carriages  along  the  drives,  and  on  the  Concourse 
hard  by. 

During  the  musical  entertainments,  visitors  are  per- 
mitted to  occupy  such  portions  of  the  lawns  on  the  Mall 
as  are  for  the  time  marked  "  common,"  though  the 
usual  injunction  is  to  ukeep  off  the  grass." 

It  is  proposed  to  provide  bands  of  music  in  other 
parts  of  the  grounds,  in  order  to  accommodate  the  ever 
increasing  number  of  visitors. 

The  annual  cost  of  the  musical  entertainments  is 
about  -five  thousand  dollars,  which  is  paid  in  part  by 
the  contributions  of  the  various  railway  companies, 
whose  lines  lead  to  and  from  the  park;  they  finding 
their  reward  in  the  increased  fares  which  the  greater 
rush  to  the  park  pours  into  their  treasuries. 

TPwEES  PLANTED  BY  THE  PRINCE  OF  WALES. 

His  BoyaJ  Highness  Albert  Edward  of  England, 
during  his  visit  to  New  York,  in  the  autumn  of  I860. 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


43 


honored  the  park,  then  in  its  infancy,  by  planting 
within  it  a  specimen  of  the  English  Oak,  and  of  the 
American  Elm. 

These  trees  stand  on  the  right  of,  and  near  to  the 
great  Drive,  as  it  passes  along  the  western  side  of  the 
Mall,  and  almost  opposite  the  centre  of  that  promenade. 
They  have  thriven  well,  and  promise  to  become  wide- 
spreading  ornaments  of  the  grounds.  May  they,  in 
their  long  life  and  health,  be  emblems  of  the  royal 
planter  s  own  career  and  destiny. 

THE  JAPANESE  TREE. 

During  the  same  season,  the  autumn  of  1860,  in 
which  the  Prince  of  Wales  made  his  offering  to  the 
park,  in  the  planting  of  an  Oak  and  Elm,  the  Japanese 
Embassy,  then  visiting  the  city,  planted  a  young  Cedar 
on  the  opposite  side  of,  and  a  little  further  up  that  part 
of  the  Drive,  by  the  margin  of  which  the  prince's  trees 
are  growing. 

Unlike  the  prince's  trees,  though,  that  of  their  Jap- 
anese excellencies  did  not  live.  Its  place  has,  how- 
ever, been  supplied  by  another  and  more  fortimate 
planting,  in  memento  of  the  interesting  incident. 

0 

THE  TERRACE. 

The  Terrace,  in  its  grand  design  and  in  its  sumptuous 
beauty,  maybe  regarded  as  the  crownmg  incident  in  the 
park  architecture,  as  it  is  the  culminating  point  in  this 


44 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


^  feature  of  finished  artistic  elegance  which  it  was  intended 
to  give  to  this  portion  of  the  grounds,  in  distinction 
from'  the  more  rural  aspect  of  the  re3t ;  and  to  which 
the  stately  promenade  of  the  Mall  adjoining,  and  the 
Marble  Archway  just  below,  both  lead  the  way  aesthet- 
ically as  well  as  geographically ;  and  which  is  still 
further  expressed  in  the  studied  design  of  the  e  Conser- 
vatory Lake  close  by,  with  its  proposed  sculptured 
banks  and  its  exotic  gardens ;  also  in  the  neighboring 
Music  Pavilion,  the  Carriage-concourse,  the  Vine-cov- 
ered Walk,  and  the  Casino. 

The  Terrace,  with  its  accessories,  is  regarded  as  the 
grand  open-air  reception-hall  of  the  park,  where  all  the 
beauty  and  elegance  and  state  of  which  the  city  can 
boast  is  expected  to  gather  at  the  fitting  hour, — no  mat- 
ter how  it  may,  at  other  times,  be  scattered  and  lost 
amidst  the  glens  and  paths  and  labyrinths  all  around. 

The  Terrace  is  the  upper  terminus  of  the  Mall  and  of 
the  plateau  which  it  traverses.  Descending  from  this 
plateau,  it  conducts  the  visitor,  by  broad  and  richly 
ornamented  flights  of  stone  steps,  to  the  banks  of  the 
principal  lake,  where  it  ends  in  a  broad,  richly  paved 
area,  decorated  with  sumptuous  fountains  and  balus- 
trades. A  superb  archway  or  arcade  beneath  the  grand 
Drive,  which  passes  around  the  head  of  the  Mall  and 
between  it  and  the  Terrace,  makes  a  chief  feature  in  the 
architecture  of  the  Terrace.  This  archway  is  reached 
from  the  Mall  by  broad  flights  of  stone  steps ;  as  the 
open  esplanade  in  front,  on  the  lake,  is  reached  from 
.  the  upper  side  of  the  Carriage-way. 

The  interior  walls  of  the  arcade  are  arched  to  cor- 
respond with  the  external  openings,  and  within  the 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


45 


leading  lines  these  arches  are  finished  with  marble  and 
colored  stone.  Some  of  the  recesses  form  semi-circular 
niches,  and  are  occupied  by  wall-fountains.  Others 
have  a  flat  surface  decoration,  or  are  embellished  with 
fine  designs  in  fresco  or  relief.  In  the  construction  of 
the  Terrace,  with  its  massive  steps,  its  arcade,  and  its 
esplanade,  consideration  has  been  had  for  its  future 
decoration  with  sculptures  of  a  high  order,  not  at 
the  expense  of  the  park  fund,  but  rather  as  gifts,  in 
expectation  of  private  munificence.  Provision  has 
therefore  been  made  for  such  crowning  adornment  in 
the  erection  of  the  various  parts  of  this  work.  Thus, 
it  is  proposed  to  place  bronze  statues  of  ''Day'1  and 
"  Night,'1  on  either  side,  at  the  head  of  the  south  flight 
of  steps  leading  from  the  Mail  down  to  the  arcade  of  the 
Terrace;  and  on  each  side  of  the  steps  at  the  two 
secondary  entrances  the  piers  are  prepared  for  statues 
illustrative  of  "Sunlight,"  "Moonlight,"  "Starlight," 
and  "Twilight."  As  a  present  substitute  for  the  ex- 
pected sculpture,  the  piers  are  now  capped  with  termi- 
nals, which  are  to  be  used  for  other  ends  by  and  by. 

The  four  large  pedestals  at  the  head  of  the  north 
flight  of  steps,  and  facing  the  broad  highway  that  over- 
rides this  part  of  the  design,  are  intended  to  support 
bronze  statues  illustrative  of  "Childhood,"  "Youth," 
"Maturity,"  and  "Old  Age."  Each  of  the  correspond- 
ing pedestals,  in  the  same  line  with  these,  is  to  bear  a 
stone  base,  filled  with  living  flowers. 

The  four  pedestals  at  the  intermediate  landings  are 
designed  for  bronze  statues  of  "Spring,"  "Summer," 
"  Autumn,"  and  "  Winter."  The  shields  below  these 
statues  are  prepared  for  illustrative  quotations  from  the 


46 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


poets,  and  the  ramps  and  balustrades  of  the  staircases 
are  designed  and  executed  with  reference  to  this  mode 
of  completion. 

For  the  four  pedestals  at  the  head  of  the  two  smaller 
staircases,  at  the  end  of  the  elliptical  terrace- wall, 
bronze  statues  are  proposed,  illustrative  of  "  The  Moun- 
tain," "The  Valley,"  -The  River,"  and  "The  Lake." 
On  the  left  of  the  intermediate  terrace,  preparations 
have  been  made  for  three  important  groups— two  of 
bronze,  opposite  the  main  staircases,  and  illustrative 
respectively  of  "Science"  and  "Art;"  and  one  of 
marble  and  Caen  stone,  under  the  arcade,  illustrative  of 
the  idea  of  "Nature."  This  group  is  to  consist  of  four 
figures,  each  arranged  to  occupy  a  separate  niche  or 
shallow  recess  in  an  architectural  composition  that  will 
form  a  centre  to  the  four  and  a  background  to  each, 
and  which  will  be  terminated  above  with  a  vase  of 
patera,  filled  with  sculptured  flowers,  fruit,  and  forest 
leaves  and  grasses ;  the  marble  statues  being  intended 
to  illustrate  the  ideas  most  readily  expressed  at  this 
moment  by  the  words  "Flora,"  "Pomona,"  "Sylva," 
and  "  Ceres."  In  the  pavement  above  the  site  intended 
for  this  group  a  glazed  opening  is  introduced ;  and  special 
provision  is  also  made  in  the  design  for  the  ornamental 
ceiling  below  :  so  that,  without  attracting  attention  to 
the  real  source  from  whence  it  comes,  a  tempered  light 
will  be  shed  over  the  group  and  appear  to  emanate 
from  it.  The  fountain  on  the  open  esplanade  in  front 
is  intended  to  be  finished  above  the  upper  water-level 
in  bronze,  and  (being,  as  it  were,  the  centre  of  the 
centre)  is  intended  to  suggest,  both  earnestly  and  play- 
fully, the  idea  of  the  central  spirit  of  "Love,"  that  is 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


41 


forever  active,  and  forever  bringing  nature,  science,  and 
art,  summer  and  winter,  youth  and  age,  day  and  night, 
into  harmonious  accord.  Miss  Emma  Stebbins  has 
been  commissioned  to  model  the  principal  figures  in  the 
group  of  the  fountain. 

The  ceiling  of  the  arcade  or  corridor  is  to  be  con- 
structed of  encaustic  tiles,  secured  to  iron  plates  and 
arranged  in  panels  ;  and  it  is  also  intended  to  pave  the 
floor  with  encaustic  tiles  or  with  marble. 


THE  RAMBLE. 


The  Ramble  covers  an  area  of  thirty-six  acres  of  slop- 
ing hill,  dropping  from  the  lower  boundary  of  the  Old 
Reservoir  (Vista  Hill),  on  Seventy-ninth  street,  to  the 


waters  of  the  Central  Lake  on  the  south  and  west,  and 
the  Drive  on  the  east.   It  is  a  labyrinth  of  charming 


48 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


walks,  all  thickly  planted  with  trees  and  shrubbery  and 
flowers,  and  studded  here  and  there  with  rustic  seats 
and  arbors.  Following  the  intricate  paths,  fine  views, 
or  glimpses  of  views,  are  obtained  occasionally  of  the 
grounds  beyond,  especially  of  the  lake  at  the  base  of  the 
hill-side,  with  its  fleet  of  pleasure-boats  and  its  flocks  of 
swans;  and  oT  the  Terrace,  with  its  architectural  beau- 
ties; and,  yet  beyond  that,  the  Mall  with  the  many  sur- 
rounding objects  of  attraction.  The  pelicans  and  storks, 
and  other  semi-acquatic  foreign  birds,  will  be  encoun- 
tered in  certain  moist  portions  of  the  Ramble,  amongst 


the  reeds  and  lilies  and  water-grasses.  On  the  west 
side,  near  the  lake-shore,  is  the  site  of  the  monument 
to  the  poet  Schiller.  At  the  northeast  and  northwest 
corners  of  the  ground  there  are  carriage-steps  leading 
from  the  grand  Drive  on  either  side.  The  general  ac- 
cess to  the  Ramble  is  across  the  Lake  over  the  Iron,  or 
the  Bow  bridge,  as  it  is  more  often  called,  after  leaving 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


49 


the  Mall  and  the  Terrace.  One-half  of  the  area  of  the 
Ramble  has  a  lake-shore,  all  points  of  which,  and  it  is 
of  wonderful  variety,  are  especially  beautiful. 

The  Ramble,  with  the  grateful  shade  of  its  dense 
vegetation,  with  its  quiet  walks  and  its  pleasant  rest- 


ing-places, is  deservedly  the  most  favorite  haunt  of  the 
park  visitors,  and  particularly  of  those  who  go  to  lounge 
away  the  summer  hours  in  dream  or  reverie,  or  to  pore 
over  the  pages  of  a  favorite  novelist  or  poet,  or  to 
whisper  words  of  love  in  accompaniment  to  the  sighings 
of  soft  airs. 


'    THE  VINE-COVERED  WALK. 

The  Vine-covered  Walk  is  a  pleasant  arbor  of  lattice- 
work, overrun  with  verdant  vines.    It  overlooks  the 
5 


50 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


Terrace  at  the  head  of  the  Mall,  adjoining  the  site  of  the 
Carriage-concourse  and  the  Casino. 

A  pretty  cascade  enters  the  lake  from  the  slopes  of 
the  Ramble.  It  is  well  seen  to  the  left,  looking  across 
from  the  esplanade  in  front  of  the  Terrace. 

THE  STONE  ARCH. 

The  Stone  Arch  on  the  western  slope  of  the  Ramble, 
through  and  over  which  the  foot-paths  are  carried,  is 
an  object  of  very  agreeable  character  to  all  visitors  in 
the  park.  Crossing  the  lake  from  below  on  the  Bowr 
Bridge  into  the  precincts  of  the  Ramble,  the  Stone  Arch 
gives  direct  access  to  the  Cave  and  the  Swiss  Bridge 
near  by.  It  is  in  part  cut  through  the  solid  rock,  and  in 
other  portions  is  formed  by  the  skill  of  the  engineers, — 
the  shrubbery  and  vines  trailing  down  over  its  rustic 
parapet  are  pretty  passages,  particularly  when,  as  is 
constantly  the  case,  children's  laughing  fcices  are  to  be 
seen  peering  out  among  the  verdure  and  down  upon  the 
travellers  beneath. 

THE  CAYE. 

.  The  Cave,  or  the  Grotto,  as  it  might  perhaps  more 
properly  be  called,  is  one  of  the  most  surprising  of  the 
many  surprises  which  go  to  make  up  the  mystery  and 
delight  of  the  Ramble.  To  the  juvenile  visitor  espe- 
cially, the  Cave  is  an  Eldorado  of  pleasures.  It  is  a 
romantic  rock -fissure,  which  opens  northward  at  the 
base  of  the  western  slope  of  the  Ramble,  and  southward 
upon  a  hale  arm  of  the  lake.    It  was  discovered  by 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


chance,  bat  not  in  its  present  spacious  and  accessible 
form,  for  it  owes  all  its  availability  to  the  judicious  assist- 
ance of  art.  On  the  north  side  the  rock  is  entirely 
artificial,  and  has  been  made  to  possess  its  very  natural 
aspect  by  being  constructed  of  rock,  first  broken  and 
then  placed  together  again  in  its  present  position  piece 
by  piece. 

On  the  upper  side,  the  Cave  is  entered  on  the  floor 
level,  and  on  the  lower  by  a  steep  descent  of  rude 
rocky  steps. 

THE  TUNNEL. 

The  Tunnel  is  a  rocky  passage  for  one  of  the  transit 
roads,  cut  through  the  high  ground  at  the  head 'of  the 
Ramble,  where  it  terminates  at  the  southern  boundary 
of  the  Old  Reservoir. 

This  locality  is  sometimes  called  Vista  Rock,  and  will 
be  remembered  by  those  who  watched  the  beginning  of 
the  work  on  the  park  as  the  site  of  the  Bell  Tower  (now 
removed),  from  which  the  signals  were  given  to  the 
workmen  in  all  parts  of  the  grounds,  particularly  when 
the  frequent  blasting  of  rocks  was  everywhere  occurring. 
The  Tunnel  has  no  particular  interest,  except  as  an  in- 
dication of  the  extent  of  the  labor  which  has  been  re- 
quired to  convert  the  ancient  wilderness  of  the  park  into 
its  present  garden-like  beauty. 

FOOT-BRLDGES  BY  THE  LAKE. 

The  twro  foot-bridges  on  the  western  side  of  the 
Ramble  are  objects  of  general  admiration,  harmonizing, 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


as  they  do,  so  admirably  with  the  picturesque  spirit  of 
the  surroundings. 

The  larger  of  these  two  bridges  carries  a  walk  from 
the  Kamble  across  an  arm  of  the  Lake.  The  abutments 
are  of  stone,  fifty-six  feet  apart,  with  fou?  intermediate 
piers  placed  two  abreast.  The  superstructure  is  chiefly 
of  white-pak,  with  a  flooring  of  yellow  pine. 

The  smaller  bridge  carries  a  foot-path  over  the 
Kamble  brook  at  its  entrance  into  the  Lake.  It  is  con- 
structed of  red  cedar,  and  is  an  extremely  dainty  little 
affair. 

THE  BOW  BRIDGE. 

The  Bow  Bridge,  as  it  is  popularly  called  from  its 
shape,  is  one  of  the  most  pleasing  of  the  many  works 
of  this  kind  erected  in  the  park.  It  traverses  the 
narrow  neck  of  the  Central  Lake  west  of  the  Terrace, 
with  a  span  of  eighty-seven  feet.  It  is  made  of 
wrought  iron,  and  is  constructed  with  one  movable 
abutment  resting  on  iron  balls,  to  allow  for  the  contrac- 
tion and  expansion  of  the  iron.  The  Bow  Bridge  is 
for  the  use  of  pedestrians  only,  and  is  the  chief  passage 
into  the  Ramble  from  the  grounds  below  the  Lake.  It 
makes  a  striking  incident  in  the  pictures  of  the  Lake 
from  many  points  of  view. 

THE  CENTRAL  LAKE. 

The  Lake,  par  excellence,  or  the  Central  Lake,  as  it 
jf  often  named,  both  from  its  pre-eminence  in  the  park 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


53 


waters  and  from  its  geographical  position,  belongs  to 
the  same  group  of  attractions  with  the  Mall,  the  Terrace, 
and  the  Ramble,  and  their  multiplied  accessories.  It 
covers  an  area  of  twenty  acres,  very  irregular  in  form, 
and  with  shores  indented  with  numerous  little  bays  and 
inlets.  The  greater  portion  of  the  water  lies  near  the 
Eighth  Avenue  or  western  side  of  the  grounds,  while 
the  smaller  division  stretches  at  right  angles  with  the 
larger,  towards  the  east.  The  entire  eastern  and 
northern  bank  is  skirted  by  the  woods  and  winding 
ways  of  the  Ramble,  while  the  grand  esplanade  of  the 
Terrace  is  washed  by  the  southern  line.  A  beautiful 
iron  bridge,  sometimes  (from  its  form)  called  the  Bow 
Bridge,  conducts  the  pedestrian  across  at  the  point  of 
junction  of  the  greater  and  lesser  portions  of  the  Lake, 
and  lands  him  at  once  within  the  mazes  of  the  Ramble; 
or  he  may  take  boat  at  the  Terrace  landing,  and  cross 
thence  immediately  to  the  landings  on  the  upper  or  the 
Ramble  shore  of  the  Lake. 

The  site  of  the  Lake  was  originally  a  marsh  fed  by 
springs  and  by  brooks,  still  preserved,  which  dripped 
into  it  from  the  hill-side  occupied  by  the  Ramble. 
TVhile  the  natural  shores  have  been  preserved',  they 
have  also  been  well  secured,  and  the  bottom  of  the  Lake 
is  protected  by  cement.  The  depth  of  the  water  is  now 
seven  feet  in  summer ;  and  in  winter,  when  it  is  reduced, 
to  insure  safety  to  the  thousands  of  skaters  upon  its 
surface,  it  is  four  feet.  The  water,  as  that  of  all  the 
lakes  and  ponds  and  pools  of  the  park?jis  drawn  from 
the  ample  supplies  in  the  great  Croton  Reservoirs 
above. 

The  Lake  is  charmingly  indented  with  little  promon- 
5* 


54 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


tories  and  headlands,  and  is  spotted  with  the  prettiest 
of  wooded  islands.  A  dainty  incident  of  the  latter 
class,  which  looks  like  a  bit  borrowed  from  the  tropics, 
lies  hard  by  the  Bow  Bridge,  leading  across  the  narrow 
strait  which  unites  the  two  divisions  of  the  water. 

The  great  Drive,  in  its  course  along  the  west  side  of 
the  park,  crosses  another  narrow  passage  in  the  lake, 
on  a  noble  bridge  of  stone  in  a  line  with  Seventy- seventh 
street,  on  the  lower  boundary  of  Manhattan  Square. 
West  of  this  bridge  the  water  washes  up  in  narrow 
eccentric  bays  almost  to  the  western  boundary  of  the 
park. 

A  short  distance  north  of  the  carriage  bridge  just 
mentioned,  a  northern  arm  of  the  Lake  is  traversed 
eastward ly  into  the  Ramble  by  means  of  a  very  beauti- 
ful structure  of  semi-rustic  design  elaborately  executed 
in  wood.  This  bridge  is  the  largest  and  most  ?*nposing 
of  its  class  to  be  found  in  the  grounds. 

The  swans  moving  so  gently  and  so  gallantly  upon 
the  quiet  waters  of  the  Lake,  never  fail  to  awaken  the 
most  pleasurable  feelings  in  all  hearts.  They  seem  to 
like  their  home,  and  to  have  prospered  and  multiplied 
since  their  settlement  here  in  the  earliest  years  of  the 
park. 

The  first  colony  of  these  beautiful  hdbitans  of  the 
Lake,  twelve  in  number,  came  from  the  ancient  city  of 
Hamburg  in  the  spring  of  1860,  offered  as  a  gift  from 
the  good  Teutons  to  their  descendants  in  Manhattan.  A 
few  weeks  after  the  arrival  of  the  swans,  no  less  than 
nine  of  the  twelve  unfortunately  died ;  but  the  loss  was 
promptly  relieved  by  a  further  donation  from  the  same 
generous  source.  The  Worshipful  Company  of  Vintners, 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


55 


in  the  city  of  London,  hearing  of  the  demise  of  the 
Hamburg  emigrants,  also  presented  to  the  Park  Com- 
missioners twelve  pairs  of  these  stately  birds,  from  the 
waters  of  the  Thames ;  and  the  Worshipful  Company 
of  Dyers,  London,  added  yet  thirteen  other  pairs  to  the 
pleasant  gift. 

These  offerings  were  all  made  in  the  year  1860,  since 
which  time  the  birds  have  dwelt  and  thriven  on  the 
park  domains,  as  if  native  there,  and  to  the  manor 
born.  Their  number  at  this  time  is  so  large  that  they 
may  be  met  with  in  all  the  nooks  and  corners  of  the 
lake.  They  are  very  civil  to  visitors,  and  most  gracious 
in  their  acceptance  of  small  gifts  of  cake  and  other 
edibles.  They  are  a  hardy  race,  and  endure  the  cold 
so  well  that  they  need  no  other  protection  in  winter 
than  the  mere  shelter  of  a  bank  to  break  the  chilling 
winds,  their  own  motion  and  natural  warmth  serving 
to  keep  their  quarters  clear  of  ice. 

The  boats  on  the  lake  add  much  to  the  picturesque 
appearance  of  the  scene,  and  the  pleasure  of  the  vis- 
itors. They  are  safe  and  pretty  vehicles,  moving 
lightly  over  the  waters,  and  well  provided  by  awnings 
from  the  burning  rays  of  summer-time. 

Pretty  landings  are  found  at  convenient  points  on 
the  shore — shaded  and  seated  nooks,  where  voyagers 
may  comfortably  await  the  arrival  of  the  boats  in  their 
circuit,  or  watch  them  as  they  glide  gayly  by. 

The  number  of  boats  on  the  lake,  and  the  list  of 
passengers,  increases  every  year.  In  1864-,  nearly  fifty- 
four  thousand  persons  availed  themselves  of  this  most 
acceptable  means  of  enjoyment,  paying  an  aggregate 
fare  of  somewhat  over  six  thousand  dollars,  against  an 


56 


CFXTRAL  PARK. 


expenditure  on  the  part  of  the  park,  for  boat  service,  of 
a  little  more  than  five  thousand  dollars,  the  surplus  being 
the  compensation  of  Mr.  Dick,  the  lessee,  and  admiral 
of  the  lake.  There  are  two  c] asses  of  boats:  one,  the 
"Omnibus,''  or  general  boats,  with  its  fixed  rates  of 
fare ;  and  the  other,  the  private,  or  u  Call*'  boats, 
which  sail  at  the  will  of  the  voyagers,  and  at  charges 
agreed  upon. 

The  skating  carnivals  of  the  park,  which  have  be-, 
come  of  late  years  so  prominent,  and  so  favorite  a 
feature  in  the  winter  amusements  and  exercise  of  the 
people  of  Manhattan,  have  thus  far  been  chiefly  held  on 
Central  Lake ;  though  good  use  has  been  made,  in  this 
wise,  of  all  the  other  available  waters,  and  especially 
of  those  of  the  Pond,  in  the  extreme  southeast  corner 
of  the  grounds. 

The  skating  season  is  generally  comprised  within  a 
period  commencing  about  Christmas,  and  ending  with 
the  month  of  February.  Ordinarily,  of  but  a  small  por- 
tion of  this  period  can  it  be  said  that  the  ice  is  perfectly 
satisfactory,  all  the  atmospheric  conditions  required  to 
perfect  it  being  rarely  combined,  being  affected  by 
snow,  sleet,  rain,  wind,  and  temperature,  varying  daily 
and  hourly.  Artificial  modes  of  improving  the  surface 
after  it  has  been  severely  cut  by  the  skaters,  or  after  it 
has  been  honey-combed  to  the  depth  of  one  or  more 
inches  by  a  fall  of  snow,  followed  by  a  warm  rain,  are 
now  used. 

Experiments  in  flooding  the  ice  to  form  a  new 
surface  have  proved  unsatisfactory;  an  ice  plane, 
with  a  sharp  blade,  and  propelled  by  hand  or  by  horse- 
power, is  at  present  employed  in  removing  the  snow 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


57 


from  the  ice,  as  far  as  practicable,  immediately  after  its 
fall. 

After  each  day's  skating,  small  flakes  or  particles  of 
ice  cover  the  surface,  as  if  more  snow  had  fallen ;  this 
is  either  swept  or  scraped  off  before  the  skating  begins 
on  the  next  morning.  The  annual  cost  of  this  care  of 
the  ice,  and  of  the  winter  buildings  which  are  erected 
on  the  shores  for  the  shelter,  convenience,  and  refresh- 
ment of  the  traveller,  is  some  six  thousand  dollars. 

The  winter  refreshment  houses  are  of  commodious 
size,  and  are  so  constructed  that  they  can  be  taken 
down  at  the  end  of  the  season,  and  replaced  the  next 
year.  The  Terrace  House  is  150  feet  long,  and  25  feet 
wid.%;  and  the  Beach  House  is  in  length  125  feet,  and  in 
width  25  feet,  with  a  skate-room  and  ladies'  sitting- 
room  attached,  47  feet  in  length  by  20  feet  in  width, 
and  two  stories  in  height.  In  the  skate-room,  visitors 
may  hire  skates  for  the  day  or  evening,  at  a  small 
charge. 

The  attendance  at  the  park  during  the  skating  season 
is  generally  larger  than  at  any  other  time  of  the  year — 
at  least,  of  visiters  on  foot :  the  whole  number  of 
which,  in  the  month  of  January,  1864,  was  555,608. 

The  usual  number  present  on  a  fine  week-day  during 
the  skating  season  is  a*>out  fifty  thousand.  Scarcely 
less  than  one  hundred  thousand  have  been  present  at 
one  time  on  special  occasions;  and  one-half  of  this 
number  have,  no  doubt,  been  together  on  and  ajjout 
the  twenty  acres  of  ice  found  on  the  Lake,  most  of  them 
twisting  and  twirling  in  highest  glee,  past,  and  per- 
chance against,  each  other. 

In  winter-time  when  the  hard  frost  sets  in  and  the 


58 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


cold  term  threatens  to  be  long  and  severe,  the  people, 
young  and  old,  male  and  female,  rich  and  poor,  find 
ample  compensation  in  the  reflection  that  the  park 
lakes  will  be  well  frozen  and  the  skating  good.  Signals 
are  displayed  at  proper  points  on  the  park,  and  are 
carried  on  railway  cars  and  omnibuses  at  such  times  as 
the  ice  is  in  .suitable  state  for  use,  announcing  the  great 
and  welcome  fact  to  the  expectant  town,  when  every- 
body rubs  his  gleeful  hands,  re-echoes  the  popular 
slogan,  "the  ball  is  up  I"  and  with  skates  on  arm  rushes 
forthwith  to  the  park,  be  the  hour  that  of  sunrise  or  of 
midnight;  indeed  it  is  generally  at  night — the  Lakes 
being  then  brilliantly  illuminated  by  calcium  lights,  and 
maybe  by  the  gentle  smiles  also  of  the  silvery  mocy^ — 
that  the  greatest  crowds  are  seen  thus  hilariously  bent. 

Among  the  thousands  are  many  skilful  experts,  who 
fly  along  on  the  gleaming  metal  with  the  fleetness  of 
the  deer  or  the  wind  itself,  and  who  are  sometimes  as 
sudden  and  eccentric  in  their  movements  and  course  as 
a  pyrotechnic  discharge  or  as  a  play  of  summer  light- 
ning— threatening  to  overrun  you  at  one  instant,  and  the 
next  scarcely  visible  in  the  remote  distance.  Indeed, 
we  have  been  told  of  such  a  master  of  the  buoyant 
sport  skimming  the  ice  on  a  wager,  with,  a  salver  in 
his  hands  covered  with  glasses  filled  to  the  brim  with 
sparkling  wine,  and  spilling  never  a  drop  in  all  his 
escapes  from/the  clutch  of  hundreds  of  baffled  pursuers. 
Then^ again  there  are  the  novices  in  the  art,  timid  of 
step  and  halting  in  movement,  who  find  a  horizontal 
pose  easier  than  a  perpendicular  on  the  elfish,  treacher- 
ous ice,  and  who  are  given  to  carrying  their  inex- 
perienced h^els  higher  than  their  ambitious  heads;  but 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


59 


all  in  good  part  and  with  jolly  jest  rather  than  with 
malediction,  since  a  fall  on  the  ice,  like  an  emetic  at 
sea,  is  a  merry  necessity  of  the  case,  which,  however 
undesired  by  the  sufferer,  must  he  laughed  at  by  him  no 
less  than  by  the  pleased  observer.  Mr.  Dickens  tells  us 
in  his  u  American  Notes,"  that  he  found  ample  compen- 
sation for  the  mishaps  of  his  outward  voyage  in  the 
contemplation  of  Mrs.  D.'s  sufferings  uin  the  same 
direction ;"  and  in  like  manner  are  the  neophytes  of  the 
skating  ponds  mutually  consoled. 

Skating,  as  a  general  sport  of  the  people,  may  be  said 
to  have  been  first  introduced  in  New  York  with  the 
facilities  afforded  by  the  lakes  of  the  park,  though  it  is 
an  ancient  pastime  in  older  lands.  In  the  northern  and 
frozen  latitudes  of  Europe  it  has  ever  been,  of  course, 
the  ordinary  means  of  locomotion,  either  for  business 
or  pleasure ;  and  in  many  lower  regions,  where  it  is  not 
a  necessity  or  a  convenience,  it  has  long  prevailed  as  a 
favorite  amusement. 

As  long  ago  as  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
the  art  was  practised  in  St.  James'  Park,  in  London; 
whence  it  is  supposed  to  have  been  introduced  from 
Holland  by  the  cavaliers. 

It  is  thus  recorded  in  the  quaint  diary  of  Pepys, 
under  the  date  of  December  15,  1662. 

uTo  the  Duke,  and  followed  him  into  the  park,  where, 
though  the  ice  was  broken,  he  would  go  slide  upon  his 
skaits,  which  I  did  not  like  ;  but  he  slides  very  well." 

u  December  1,  1662.  Over  the  park,  where  I  first  in 
my  life,  it  being  a  great  frost,  did  see  people  sliding 
with  their  skaits,  which  is  a  very  pretty  art." 

Evelyn  also  says  under  the  same  date :  "  Having  seen 


60 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


the  strange  and  wonderful  dexterity  of  the  sliders  on 
the  new  canal  in  St.  James'  Park,  performed  before 
their  Majesties  by  divers  gentlemen  and  others,  with 
scheets,  after  the  manner  of  the  Hollanders — with  what 
swiftnes-  they  pause,  how  suddenly  they  stop  on  the 
ice — went  home." 

Swift,  in  his  journal  in  January,  1711,  says :  "  Delicate 
walking  weather,  and  the  canal  and  Rosamond's  Pond 
full  of  the  rabble  sliding  and  with  skaits,  if  you  know 
what  that  is." 

The  rude  beginnings  of  the  art  are  thus  recorded  by 
the  historian  of  London  : 

"When  the  great  fen  or  moore  (which  watereth  the 
walls  of  the  city  on  the  north  side)  is  frozen,  many 
young  men  play  upon  the  yce ;  some  stryding  as  wide 
as  they  may,  do  slide  swiftly,  some  tye  bones  to  their 
feete  and  under  their  heeles,  and  shoving  themselves  by 
a  little  picked  staffe,  doe  slide  as  swiftly  as  a  birle  flyeth 
in  the  air  or  an  arrow  out  of  a  cross-bow." 

If  we  may  be  allowed,  like  Mr.  Silas  Wegg,  to  11  drop 
into  poetry,"  which  we  have  avoided  in  this  volume, 
desiring  to  fill  our  pages  with  facts  rather  *than  with 
sentiment,  we  will  borrow  an  allusion  to  the  art  of 
skating  in  its  earlier  days,  from  Thomson's  u  Winter," 
published  in  1726,  in  which  he  says : 

....  w  or  where  the  Rhine, 
Branched  out  in  many  a  long  canal,  extends 
From  every  province,  swarming,  void  of  care, 
Batavia  rushes  forth ;  and  as  they  sweep 
On  sounding  skates,  a  thousand  different  ways, 
In  circling  poise,  swift  as  the  wind  along, 
The  men  gay  land  is  maddened  all  to  joy." 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


61 


The  following  description  of  the  art  as  seen  in  Hyde 
Park,  in  London,  will  answer  just  as  well  for  our  own 
latitude: 

"The  Hyde  Park  river — which  no  river  is, 

The  Serpentine — which  is  not  serpentine, 

When  frozen,  every  skater  claims  as  his 

In  right  of  common,  there  to  intertwine 

With  countless  crowds,  and  glide  upon  the  ice. 

Lining  the  banks,  the  timid  and  unwilling 

Stand  and  look  on,  while  some  the  fair  entice, 

By  telling,  'yonder  skaters  are  quadrilling' — 

And  here  the  skateless  hire  the  best  skates  for  a  shilling." 

"The feats  of  a  practical  skater/' continues  the  offi- 
cial report  from  which  we  have  freely  quoted  in  these 
paragraphs  upon  the  gay  sport,  u  are  as  attractive  to 
the  spectators  as  those  of  a  rope-dancer,  or  an  expert 
gymnast.  The  movements  of  a  throng  of  skaters  on  a 
clear  day,  chasing  each  other  in  gleeful  mood  over  the 
crystal  ceiling  of  the  imprisoned  lake — the  fur-clad  in- 
mates of  a  the  isand  gay  vehicles,  coursing  along  the 
silver  snow  to  the  music  of  hells — the  dusky  foliage  of 
the  fir  and  the  pine  on  the  adjacent  heights  wrapped 
with  wreaths  of  fleecv  white — leafless  branches  strung 
with  a  fairy  network  of  icy  pearls,  frail  but  gorgeous 
as  it  glistens  and  flashes  with  a  thousand  hues  in  every 
glance  of  the  sunlight,  form  in  our  midst  a  winter 
scene  unmatched  by  that  of  any  capital  or  country  of 
modern  times,  because  it  is  attainable  only  in  a  climate 
and  amid  an  extent  of  population,  of  wealth,  and  lib- 
erality such  as  peculiarly  characterizes  the  Queen  City 
of  the  Western  Hemisphere." 

6 


62 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


Skating  laws  have  been  promulgated  by  the  park 
authorities,  in  which  skaters  are  advised  and  directed — 

"Not  to  go  upon  the  ice  except  by  the  paths  pro- 
vided therefor. 

"  To  use  the  foot-scrapers  on  the  gang-plank  before 
stepping  upon  the  ice. 

"  Not  to  drop  any  tobacco,  cigar-stumps,  paper,  nut- 
shells, or  ether  articles  upon  the  ice. 

"  To  avuid  crowds ;  since  even  thick  ice  is  liable  to 
be  cracked ;  and  if  a  number  of  persons  crowd  on  one 
side  of  a  crack  in  the  ice,  it  suddenly  tips,  and  en- 
dangers the  lives  of  all  upon  it. 

"  Xot  to  interrupt  the  laborers  on  the  ice,  and  to 
heed  all  hints  and  cautions  from  the  park-keepers. 

<fc  To  report  to  the  park-keepers  all  instances  of  in- 
civility or  of  extortion  on  the  part  of  the  licensed 
keepers  of  any  of  the  tents  or  refreshment  houses. 

"  Not  to  go  upon  the  ice,  except  at  such  times  as  the 
National  flag  may  be  flying  in  intimation  that  it  is 
entirely  safe  to  venture." 

THE  BALCONY  BRIDGE. 

The  Balcony  Bridge  carries  the  carriage  road  and 
walk  over  the  channel  connecting  the  main  and  the 
western  portions  of  the  Central  Lake.  This  bridge  is 
sixty-six  feet  in  length,  with  a  span  of  twenty-seven 
feet,  and  a  height  of  arch  of  eleven  and  a  half  feet. 
Seen  across  the  lake  from  the  Ramble,  this  handsome 
structure  forms  a  very  picturesque  item  in  the  land- 
scape, especially  when  the  stately  waterfowl,  or  the 


* 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


63 


pretty  boats  of  the  lake  may  chance,  as  they  do  ever 
and  anon,  to  glide  within  the  shadow  of  its  graceful 
arch,  or  cross  the  sunlit  foreground  of  the  picture. 

THE  MUSEUM. 

The  Museum  and  the  park  offices  are  at  present  in 
the  ancient  castellated  edifice  situated  near  the  Fifth 
Avenue,  opposite  Sixty- fourth  street  —  the  building 
formerly  occupied  as  a  State  Arsenal.  It  is  quite  un- 
suitable in  its  architecture  to  its  present  place  and  uses, 
and  will  no  doubt  be  in  due  time  supplanted  by  another 
structure  more  in  keeping  with  the  rural  aspect  of  the 
grounds,  of  which  it  now  forms  a  part.  It  is,  however, 
useful  for  the  present,  an  I  so  may  be  tolerated,  and 
even  enjoyed. 

The  engineer-in-chief  and  other  officers,  whose  duties 
make  it  necessary  for  them  to  be  on  the  spot,  have 
their  offices  in  the  upper  part  of  the  old  castle ;  though 
it  is  interesting  to  the  visitor  chiefly  as  containing  such 
beginnings  as  have  already  been  made  of  an  Art  Gal- 
lery and  Museum,  and  (in  winter)  of  the  contributions 
so  far  made  towards  the  formation  of  the  proposed 
Zoological  Garden  of  the  park. 

The  art  collection  now  to  be  seen  in  the  museum  is 
nearly  all  embraced  in  the  eighty-seven  casts  from  the 
works  of  Crawford,  presented  to  the  park  by  the  widow 
of  the  lamented  sculptor.  Among  them  are  the  follow- 
ing statues : 


Orpheus  (life  size). 
Apollo  and  Diana. 


Indian  Grave. 

Hebe  and  Ganymede. 


64 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


Cupid. 

Genius  of  Mirth. 


^   Mercury  and  Psyche. 
Daughter  of  Herodias. 


Boy  playing  marbles.     Boy  with  a  broken  tambo- 


Be sides  these  works,  the  museum  possesses  a 
Bronze  statue  of  Eve,  presented  by  Marshall  O.  Roberts, 
Esq. 

Crawford's  Flora,  in  marble,  presented  by  R.  K.  Haight, 
Esq. 

A  Bronze  Fountain,  Boy  and  Swan,  presented  by  Thomas 
Richardson,  Esq. 

A  group  of  Bronze  Eagles,  presented  by  G.  W.  Burn- 
ham,  Esq. 

A  Venetian  Gondola,  presented  by  John  A.  C.  Gray, 
Esq. ;  and  other  gifts. 

It  is  expected  that  the  museum  and  art  collection  of 
the  park  will  be  united  with  the  like  treasures  in  the 
possession  of  the  New  York  Historical  Society,  and  be 
preserved,  under  the  auspices  of  that  body,  either  in  the 
present  park  edifice  or  in  some  other  more  appropriate 


Flora. 
Beethoven. 
The  Mechanic. 
The  Schoolmaster. 


Truants. 
The  Peri. 

Hunting-boy  with  hound. 
Raphael. 

Dying  Indian  Girl. 
Dancing  Jenny. 
Aurora.- 
James  Otis. 
Patrick  Henry. 
Thomas  Jefferson. 
Children  in  the  Wood. 


nne.. 


The  Schoolboy. 
The  Merchant. 
The  Soldier. 


The  Woodman. 
Indian  Hunter. 
Indian  Chief. 
Indian  Woman. 
America. 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


65 


structure  to  be  erected  on  the  same  or  some  better 
site. 

Xo  direct  movement  has  yet  been  made  towards  the 
accomplishment  of  this  scheme,  beyond  the  passage,  of 
an  act  bj  the  Legislature  (March  5,  1862),  authorizing 
the  Park  Commissioners  to  set  apart  and  appropriate  to 
the  Historical  Society  the  building  formerly  known  as 
the  arsenal,  to  be  occupied  as  a  museum  of  antiquities 
and  science  and  as  a  gallery  of  art ;  the  society  to  take 
possession  at  their  pleasure,  through  the  simple  form  of 
a  resolution  to  that  effect  on  the  part  of  the  Park  Board. 

ZOOLOGICAL  GARDEN. 

The  Zoological  Garden  which  it  is  proposed  to  form 
within  the  domain  of  the  park,  and  of  which  the  pres- 
ent small  collection  of  animals  is  the  nucleus,  will  very 
probably  be  placed  in  that  recent  addition  to  the  park 
grounds  known  as  Manhattan  Square.  It  may  be  under 
the  direct  conduct  of  the  park  authorities,  or  may  be 
managed  by  a  distinct  society  or  company,  holding 
grants  or  leases  of  grounds  for  the  purpose,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  Historical  Society,  just  referred  to,  and  the 
Park  Museum  and  Art  Gallery.  A  society  for  this  object 
was,  indeed,  chartered  by  the  Legislature  in  1861,  under 
the  name  of  the  American  Botanical  and  Zoological 
Society,  for  whose  use  the  commissioners  were  author- 
ized to  set  apart  sixty  acres  of  the  park  grounds ;  but 
this  society  has  not  yet  taken  any  steps  in  the  matter. 
Should  they  not  soon  do  so,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the 
general  popular  interest  on  the  subject  will  lead  to  early 
and  efficient  action  in  some  other  way. 

6* 


60 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


The  few  animals  now  gathered  under  the  shelter  of 
the  museum  in  winter,  or  scattered  through  the  grounds 
in  summer,  afford  high  gratification  to  visitors  of  all 
degrees ;  and  the  collection  enlarged,  classified,  and 
cared  for,  would  prove  a  very  entertaining  and  instruc- 
tive item  in  the  park  pleasures. 

Zoological  gardens  are  prominent  and  approved  inci- 
dents in  many  of  the  leading  pleasure-gronnds  of  the 
old  world.  In  Kegent's  Park,  in  London,  they  are  con- 
ducted by  the  Zoological  Society,  with  a  small  fee  for 
admission.  The  zoological  collection  in  the  Jardin  des 
Plantes,  in  Paris,  formed  more  than  two  centuries  ago, 
has  always  been  liberally  fostered  by  the  governmeut, 
and  recalls  on  its  list  of  supporters  and  directors  such 
names  as  the  se  of  Bufifon,  Cuvier,  and  other  naturalists 
of  world-wide  fame. 

The  Surrey  Zoological  Gardens  of  London,  founded 
in  1831,  occupy  an  area  of  some  fifteen  acres,  and  form 
a  highly  popular  public  resort. 

Botanical  collections  will  no  doubt,  in  due  time,  add 
to  the  interest  and  pleasure  of  a  day  in  the  park,  as  they 
do  in  other  famous  resorts  of  the  kind  abroad.  The 
very  especial  necessity  for  the  cultivation  of  trees  and 
plants  in  the  Central  Park,  by  reason  of  the  original 
nakedness  of  the  ground,  has  called  forth  a  degree  of 
concern  and  interest  in  the  subject  which  will  most 
likely  lead  to  its  becoming,  by  and  by,  a  very  marked 
feature  of  the  place.  A  conservatory  of  exotic  flowers 
and  plants  has  been  already  located,  and  large  nurseries 
of  trees  are  cultivated  in  the  Upper  Park ;  in  addition  to 
which  (as  Ave  have  said  above,  and  in  the  paragraphs 
dc  \  oted  to  the  vegetation  of  the  park,  in  another  part 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


6T 


of  this  volume)  the  entire  area  of  the  grounds  is  a  vast 
botanical  garden,  tended  with  the  greatest  care. 

The  birds  of  the  park  are  every  }-ear  increasing  in 
numbers  with  the  increasing  density  of  the  leafage,  and 
the  judicious  efforts  made  to  attract  them  to  the 
grounds,  in  the  provision  of  artificial  resting-places  and 
in  their  careful  protection  from  marauding  Nimrods. 
As  they  increase,  their  morning  and  evening  songs  in 
the  arbors  and  tree-tops  will  add  not  a  little  to  the  en- 
joyment of  the  grounds;  while  they  will  also  do  good 
and  needful  service  in  protecting  the  vegetation  against 
the  assaults  of  the  armies  of  insects  and  worms  which 
can  in  no  other  way  be  so  well  repelled. 

Besides  thus  attracting  the  native  birds  to  the  woods 
and  glens  of  the  park,  e*  ery  effort  will  be  made  also  to 
domesticate  as  far  as  possible  the  feathered  songsters  of 
all  other  climes,  to  please  our  ears  with  their  melodious 
warblings,  or  our  eyes  with  their  dainty  and  dazzling 
plumage. 

THE  POXD. 

The  Pond  is  a  long,  narrow,  and,  in  its  course,  very 
eccentric  sheet  of  water,  of  five  acres  in  extent.  It  lies 
in  the  extreme  southeast  aijgle  of  the  grounds,  stretch- 
ing almost  under  the  southern  boundary  walls  from  the 
Fifty-ninth  street  and  Sixth  Avenue  gate  to  the  Fifth 
Avenue  and  Fifty-ninth  street  access,  and  making  up 
northwesterly  almost  to  Sixty-fourth  street. 

The  surface  here  is  very  varied — dropping  down  to 
the  waters  of  the  Pond  by  steep,  rocky  declivities,  and 


08 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


affording  opportunity  for  much  devious  and  secluded 
stroll.  The  frolicsome  windings  of  the  Pond  are  well 
seen  from  all  the  roads  and  walks  in  the  vicinity. 

From  the  ready  access  to  this  picturesque  water, 
lying  as  it  does  so  near  the  lower  or  city  end  of  the 
park,  it  has  always  been  (after  the  Central  Lake,  by  the 
Eamble  and  Terrace)  the  favorite  scene  of  the  winter 
skating  sports.  It  is,  for  this  purpose,  particularly 
affected  by  novices  in  the  art,  who  seek  to  hide  their 
timid  steps  in  the  more  secluded  nooks  to  be  found 
amidst  its  many  little  bays  and  narrow  straits.  In  this 
respect^  it  may  in  winter  be  considered  as  the  grammar 
school  in  the  icy  art,  where  pupils  are  duly  fitted  for 
entrance  upon  the  higher  arena  of  the  lake  above. 

In  the  winter  season  the  sons  of  old  Scotia  may  be 
observed  upon  the  Pond,  earnestly  engaged  in  the  mys- 
terious exercises  of  their  favorite  national  spor*  known 
as  the  curling-game, 

THE  FLOWER  GARDEN. 

The  Flower  Garden,  as  proposed,  is  situated  in  low 
ground,  directly  east  of  and  adjoining  the  Conservatory 
Lake,  close  by  the  Fifth  Avenue  boundary  at  Seventy- 
fourth  street.  It  will  be  a  charming  addition  to  the 
group  of  beautiful  artistic  creations  of  which  the  Mall 
and  the  Terrace  are  the  dominant  features.  Over  the 
verandah  or  arcade  which  it  is  proposed  to  build  against 
the  east  wall  of  the  park,  in  connection  with  the  garden, 
a  structure  is  contemplated,  with  an  entrance  on  a  level 
with  the  higher  grade  of  the  avenue,  so  as  to  give  an 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


69 


opportunity  for  a  view  of  the  garden  both  from  this 
level  and  from  another  story  above  it. 

The  plan  of  the  Flower  Garden  is  geometrical ;  and  it 
is  to  be  surrounded  by  an  irregular  and  less  formal 
plantation  of  shrubs,  that  will  serve  to  connect  it  with 
the  park  proper.  In  the  centre  it  is  proposed  to  con- 
struct a  large  basin  for  a  fountain,  with  a  high  jet.  to- 
gether with  the  smaller  fountains;  and.  in  connection 
with  the  north  wall,  which  will  be  somewhat  below 
the  surface  beyond,  it  is  proposed  to  arrange  some  such 
wall-fountain  as  the  one  at  Trevi.  The  water  for  this 
fountain  will,  in  the  present  case,  be  supplied  from  the 
overflow  from  the  lake,  and  also  from  the  reservoir,  and 
will  fall  into  a  semi-circular  marble  basin,  with  a  paved 
floor.  The  supply  of  water  for  the  purpose  being  ample, 
an  opportunity  will  be  here  offered,  in  a  sculptured 
fountain  of  this  sort,  for  an  effect  quite  distinct  in  char- 
acter from  that  produced  by  a  jet  cVeau. 


THE  GREEK 

The  Green  is  a  broad  sweep  of  meadow-land,  cover- 
ing an  area  of  fifteen  acres,  on  the  western  side  of  the 
Lower  Park,  immediately  south  of  the  lake  and  west  of 
the  whole  stretch  of  the  Mall.  The  Carriage-drive, 
with  foot-paths  on  each  edge  of  the  road,  borders  it  on 
all  sides  except  on  the  south.  Immediately  below  the 
Green,  and  between  it  and  a  somewhat  smaller  lawn, 
named  the  Playground,  the  most  southerly  of  the  trans- 
verse roads  crosses  the  park,  passing,  by  means  of  the 
bridges  and  archways,  under  all  the  walks  and  rides 


'70 


*  CENTRAL  PARK. 


and  drives  which  it  encounters  in  its  course.  The 
Green  is  crossed  near  its  upper  and  lower  extremities 
by  slightly  curving-  footpaths  leading  from  east  to  wast. 
This  wide  sweep  of  well-kept  lawn,  broken  only  by  an 
occasional  tree  or  clump  of  trees,  is  a  grateful  sight  to 
the  eyes  of  the  imprisoned  citizen,  who  sees  nothing  in 
his  usual  life,  from  morn  to  night,  but  never-ending 
pavements  and  interminable  walls  of  brick  or  stone.  It 
is,  too,  in  grateful  contrast  with  the  more  broken  and 
occupied  portions  of  the  grounds  around. 

The  Green  was  originally  intended  for  a  parade- 
ground  and  for  military  evolutions,  and  may  yet  be,  on 
occasions,  so  used.  No  doubt  it  will  serve  good  pur- 
poses, whatever  they  may  be;  but  it  should  not  be 
occupied  in  any  manner  which  would  very  seriously  in- 
terfere with  its  present  meadow-like  aspect,  or  which 
would  destroy  the  beauty  of  tiie  grass  carpet  which  now 
covers  it  so  refreshingly. 

THE  PLAYGROUND. 

The  Playground  is  a  lawn  of  ten  acres,  lying  directly 
below  and  contiguous  to  the  Green.  It  is  surrounded 
by  foot-paths,  outside  of  which  on  the  south  the  Bridle- 
path leads,  and  the  Great  Drive  incloses  it  nearly  on 
all  sides  except  the  north. 

The  Playground  extends  nearly  to  the  southwestern 
angle  of  the  grounds,  and  is  most  directly  reached  by 
the  u  Merchants'  Gate"  at  Eighth  Avenue  and  Fifty- 
ninth  street. 

Trees  and  clumps  of  trees  surround  the  Playground 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


71 


on  its  borders,  and  near  the  lower  edge  a  large  pic- 
turesque mass  of  rock  occurs. 

It  is  intended  by  and  by  to  use  the  Playground  for 
match  games  of  cricket  and  other  kindred  sports,  which 
may  be  watered  from  a  suitable  building  on  the  large- 
rock  just  mentioned. 

THE  DOVE-COT. 

The  Dove-Cot  with  its  pretty  population  is  a  very 
pleasing  object  to  all  eyes.  It  consists  of  tall  stands, 
provided  with  proper  nests  and  perches,  the  whole 
inclosed  in  a  dome-like  wire  screen.  The  dainty  birds 
seern  to  enjoy  their  home,  as  they  hop  round  in  friendly 
calls  from  one  neighbor  to  another,  Such  passages  as 
the  Dove-Cot  and  the  elevated  bird  cages  on  the  MaD: 
are  little  graceful  touches  of  sentiment  which  add  much; 
to  the  beauty  of  the  park  picture.  They  might  be 
increased  and  varied  to  great  advantage. 

The  Dove-Cot  is  near  the  Fifth  Avenue  boundary, 
east  of  the  Ramble,  and  just  above  the  site  of  the  Flower 
Garden  and  the  Conservatory  Lake. 

THE  EVERGREEN  WALK. 

The  Evergreen  Walk  adjoins  the  Dove-Cot,  immedi- 
ately on  the  left  of  the  Drive,  entering  at  the  Fifthi 
Avenue  and  Seventy -ninth  street  gate,  directly  east  of 
the  Ramble.  It  is  to  be  circles  within  circles  of  pleasant 
promenades,  separated  and  inclosed  by  closely  trimmed 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


hedges  of  regular  forms,  in  which,  at  intervals,  are  to 
be  recesses  furnished  with  rustic  seats;  the  whole  to 
present  the  effect  of  a  series  of  luxurious  and  stately 
garden  walks.  The  entire  circle  or  ellipse  is  to  be  sur- 
rounded by  a  thicket  of  shrubbery  and  trees,,  which  will 
serve  to  increase  the  surprise  upon  entering  the  walks, 
and  make  one  imagine  that  they  have  gone  back  to  the 
days  and  the  landscape  of  the  courtly  time  of  the  grand 
Louis. 

THE  CEDARS. 

T'ue  Cedars  is  another  pleasant  bit  of  the  landscape 
embellishment  of  the  Lower  Park,  occurring  at  its  upper 
extremity,  on  the  south  line  of  the  Old  Reservoir  and 
immediately  opposite  the  Seventy -ninth  street  gate  at 
Fifth  Avenue,  northwest  of  and  leading  directly  into 
the  Ramble  by  the  East  Carriage  Step  from  the 
Drive. 

"  The  Cedars, *'  like  many  other  incidents  in  the  order 
of  the  park,  has  not  yet  grown  into  that  completeness 
which  will  in  due  time  more  and  more  separate  and 
individualize  it.  The  spot  has,  however,  already  enough 
character  to  arrest  and  interest  the  attention  of  the 
visitor. 

THE  MAZE. 

The  Maze  is  a  proposed  labyrinth  of  wooded  paths, 
^here  the  children  both  old  and  young  may  play  hide- 
and-seek  to  their  hearts1  content.    It  is  to  be  located  in 


CENTRAL  PAKK. 


IS 


the  angle  bounded  by  the  northeast  corner  of  the  old, 
and  the  south  wall  of  the  new  reservoir,  the  carriage 
road  passing  on  the  east. 

The  South  Gate  House  of  the  Xew  Reservoir,  a  very 
interesting  portion  of  the  great  Croton  structure,  is 
located  near  the  Maze. 

The  Transverse  road  which  passes  between  the  two 
Croton  ba>ins,  from  the  Fifth  Avenue  at  Eighty-fifth 
street  to  the  Eighth  Avenue  at  Eighty-sixth  street, 
skirts  the  site  of  the  Maze  on  the  north. 


THE  WINTER  DRIVE. 

,  The  Winter  Drive  tra\  erses  the  western  side  of  the 
Middle  Park  between  Seventy-second  and  One  Hundred 
and  Second  streets,  skirting  in  its  course  the  entire 
length  of  the  reservoirs. 

It  is  about  a  mile  and  a  half  in  length,  and  is  thickly 
planted  with  evergreens;  deciduous  trees  and  shrubs 
being  introduced  only  so  far  as  necessary  to  avoid  a 
monotonous  and  gloomy  effect.  Open  glades  of  grass 
break  the  uniformity  of  these  plantations  of  evergreen, 
as  the  effect  designed  is  not  so  much  that  of  a  drive 
through  a  thick  forest  crowded  with  spreading  trees,  as 
through  a  richly  wooded  country  in  which  single  trees 
and  copses  have  had  ample  room  for  full  characteristic 
development. 

The  Winter  Drive,  when  covered  with  snow  and 
crowded  with  merry  sleighs,  is  a  scene  which  may  rival 
even  the  brightest  of  summer  landscapes. 

7 


74 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


CONSERVATORY  LAKE. 

Conservatory  Lake  is  to  be  an  ornamental  piece  of 
water,  designed  to  accompany  and  form  part  of  the 
projected  Conservatory  and  Flower  Gardens.  It  occu- 
pies over  two  acres,  lying  near  the  Fifth  Avenue  side, 
in  a  direct  line  with  the  Lake  and  the  Terrace.  It  is 
to  be  symmetrical  and  architectural  in  its  construction, 
being  intended  as  an  incident  in  the  artistic  rather  than 
the  natural  physique  of  the  park.  Both  in  itself,  and 
in  connection  with  the  cultivated  grounds  around  it, 
and  in  contrast  with  the  more  rural  landscape  passages 
beyond,  it  is  an  exceedingly  appropriate  and  interesting 
object,  adding  much,  to  the  finish  and  completeness  of 
the  place. 

THE  KNOLL. 

The  Knoll,  or  Summit  Rock  as  it  is  otherwise  named, 
is  the  highest  point  of  land  within  the  limits  of  the 
park ;  though  it  will  not  be  supposed  to  be  so  by 
the  visitor  who  has  stood  upon  the  more  isolated  em- 
inences of  the  Upper  Park — as  the  Great  Hill,  over- 
looking McGowan's  Pass,  or  the  Bluffs,  on  the  northern 
boundary. 

The  gradual  charactar  of  the  ascent  to  the  Knoll 
deceives  the  visitor  in  respect  to  its  actual  height. 
This  elevated  site  is  near  the  western  border,  opposite 
the  Old  Reservoir  at  Eighty-third  street.  It  is  passed 
by  the  Cairiage-drive,  the  Bridle-road,  and  the  foot- 
paths in  the"  circuit  of  the  grounds. 

2* 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


T5 


The  elevation  here  above  tide-water  is  one  hundred 
and  thirty-seven  feet,  which  is  seven  feet  above  the 
highest  point  Of  the  Great  Hill  in  the  Upper  Park,  that 
seemingly  more  lofty  eminence  rising  only  to  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty  feet  above  the  tide  level.  The  level  of 
the  Croton  Reservoirs,  when  full,  is  one  hundred  and 
fifteen  feet  and  a  small  fraction.  The  height  above  the 
tide  level  of  the  Central  Lake  is  fifty-three  feet ;  of  the 
Mai!,  seventy-nine  feet;  and  of  the  Harlem  Lake,  at 
the  north  end  of  the  park,  only  eleven  feet. 

Of  course,  such  a  lofty  elevation  affords  magnificent 
views  of  the  entire  area  of  the  park,  above  and  below: 
of  the  reservoirs  in  their  whole  stretch ;  and  of  the 
surrounding  country,  with  all  its  diversified  attractions 
in  every  directioiwtowards  the  distant  sea  on  the 
south,  and  the  Hudson  and  the  Harlem  rivers  on  the 
east  and  west. 

THE  POOL. 

The  Pool,  near  the  centre  of  the  Eighth  Avenue  edge 
of  the  Upper  Park,  close  by,  and  immediately  accessible 
from  the  "Boys7  Gate''  at  One  hundredth  street,  is  the 
head  of  a  beautiful  chain  of  pearly  lakelets,  strung  on  a 
charming  thread  of  dancing  brook,  which  capers  and 
leaps  diagonally  across  the  northern  half  of  the  upper 
section  of  the  park,  until  it  terminates  in  the  broad 
expanse  of  Harlem  Lake,  in  the  extreme  northeast  angle 
of  the  grounds. 

The  Pool,  like  all  the  park  wafers,  except  the  reser- 
voirs and  other  professedly  geometrical  or  ornamental 
constructions,  is  extremely  varied  both  in  the  line  and 


76 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


character  of  its  shores;  a  rocky  ledge  abruptly  over- 
hanging the  waters  at  one  point,  and  a  quiet  greensward 
sloping  gently  down  at  another.  The  Pool,  though  not 
a  very  pretending  water  (with  its  moderate  area  of 
little  more  than  two  acres),  is,  even  all  unadorned  by 
the  hand  of  art,  strikingly  picturesque  in  its  varied 
character,  and  is  susceptible  of  embellishment  to  almost 
any  extent.  It  is  an  appropriate  initial  letter  to  this 
more  varied  and  bolder  portion  of  the  park  landscape. 
Foot-paths  surround  the  Pool,  and  it  is  skirted  and 
overlooked  on  the  south  and  east  by  the  Grand  Drive. 
Leaving  the  park  by  the  entrance  near  the  Pool,  the 
visitor  faces  some  substantial  archways  of  the  Croton 
Aqueduct,  outside  of  the  walls. 

A  Waterfall,  as  free  in  its  leap  and  in  its  rocky  bed 
as  if  no  hand  but  that  of  nature  had  helped  to  fashion 
it,  is  to  be  seen  just  bgyond  the  rustic  foot-brdge,  at 
the  eastern  extremity  of  the  Pool,  where  the  water 
pursues  its  course  towards  Harlem  Lake,  in  the  char- 
acter of  a  rocky  brooklet.  This  is  one  of  the  largest  of 
the  cascades  of  the  park,  excepting,  perhaps,  one  on  the 
same  current,  yet  nearer  to  the  Harlem  Lake.  Most  of 
the  surrounding  boulders  have  been  gathered  there 
under  the  engineer's  creating  wand ;  but  so  aptly,  that 
his  artistic  agency  is  scarcely  suspected.  The  little 
bridge  over  the  cascade  does  much  to  increase  its  pic- 
turesque effect. 

THE  LOCH. 

The  Loch  is  another  lake-like  widening  of  the  water- 
stretch,  of  which  we  have  spoken  as  commencing  with 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


11 


the  Pool  on  the  west  side  of  the  Upper  Park,  and  run- 
ning diagonally  across  to  the  northeast  corner,  where 
it  ends  in  the  new  Harlem  Lake. 

In  extent,  the  Loch  is  but  little  more  than  an  acre ; 
but  many  special  beauties  are  comprised  within  the 
narrow  limits,  not  counting  the  general  romantic  and 
bold  attractions  offered  by  the  wild-wooded  banks, 
which  ascend  from  the  bed  of  the  waters  here,  as  from 
that  of  the  whole  chain  of  brook  and  lake,  of  which  it 
furms  a  link,  to  the  lofty  summits  of  the  noble  (we  may 
almost  say  the  mountain)  ridge  on  the  west. 

With  the  great  natural  capacities  of  this  portion  of 
the  grounds,  it  is  hardly  possible  to  estimate  the  beauty 
which  may  gather  around  in  due  time. 

CASCADE  AND  STONE  BRIDGE,  KEAR 
HARLEM  LAKE, 

At  the  northeast  extremity  of  the  Loch,  where  the 
waters  again  narrow  into  a  merry  rocky  brooklet,  there 
occurs  another  of  the  wonderful  little  cascades  which 
add  so  much  to  the  charms  of  this  part  of  our  park. 
Just  below  the  waterfall,  one  of  the  pretty  rustic  bridges 
so  characteristic  of  the  grounds  carries  the  foot-path 
across  the  brook;  and  just  above,  the  Carriage-road 
crosses  upon  a  massive  rustic  structure  of  a  single  arch, 
formed  of  rude  and  ponderous  boulders,  pitched  together 
as  by  the  iron  hand  of  some  angry  Titan,  many  stones 
of  which  weigh  each  from  one  to  twenty  tons,  and  one 
of  which  weighs  no  less  than  one  hundred  tons. 

The  Cascade,  as  seen  looking  south  from  the  parapet 
7* 


78 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


of  the  bridge,  is  of  great  variety  in  its  incidents,  and  so 
remarkably  natural  in  its  whole  air,  that  it  is  barely  pos- 
sible to  realize  that  it  is  in  any  degree  the  result  of 
human  art  or  labor.    It  is,  in  all  its  details  and  acces- 


sories— from  the  broken  rocky  foreground  to  the  blue- 
hilled  distance — just  such  a  picture  as  an  artist  would 
instinctively  stop  to  paint,  or  would,  at  least,  treasure 
in  his  memory  as  material  for  after-study. 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


79 


In  the  centre  of  the  picture  the  dancing  water  comes 
down,  over  rock  and  ledge,  as  merrily  as  water  ever 
"  comes  down  at  Lodore."  Above  the  fall  stretches  the 
green  meadow,  skirted  by  the  great  Drive ;  and  beyond 
that  are  seen  the  tops  of  trees,  looking  like  a  distant 


forest-land.  Steep  banks  of  greensward,  broken  by 
rocky  groups,  flank  the  brook  on  either  side,  and  are 
covered  by  forest-trees,  whose  branches  meet  above  the 
fall  in  an  over-arching  canopy  of  cool  and  shadowing 
verdure.  In  the  foreground  the  foot-path  steals  down 
the  steep  declivity  with  coquettish  step,  past  flowering 


80 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


bank  and  tnossy  stone,  until  it  meets  the  silvery  ripples 
of  the  winding  brook. 

This  is  one  glimpse  of  this  charming  cascade  Many 
other  peeps,  scarcely  less  attractive,  may  be  obtained 
from  various  points  on  all  sides,  whether  from  the  bed 
of  the  brook  or  from  the  walks  and  drives  above. 
Thousands  make  long  and  weary  pilgrimages  to  see, 
with  delight,  scenes  not  half  so  beautiful. 

THE  GROTTO  BRIDGE. 

A  little  way  from  the  cascade,  at  the  foot  of  the  pool, 
the  carriage-road  is  carried  over  the  brook  and  the  foot- 
path at  its  side  by  a  fine  bridge  of  semi-rural  character, 
ha  .'ing  substantial  stone  abutments,  with  a  rustic  super- 
structure-in  wood.  This  is  one  of  the  most  pleasing 
and  most  novel  of  the  many  striking  works  oi  the  kind 
to  be  seen  within  the  park.  The  bridge  is  of  command- 
ing height  and  of  spacious  span,  with  a  central  arch 
flanked  on  either  side  by  other  semi-arches,  terminating 
in  the  rocky  hill-sides  of  the  brook ;  but  is  above  all 
interesting  from  a  very  novel  feature  with  which  it 
surprises  and  delights  the  visitor  who  chances  to  follow 
the  pathway  under  the  arch.  This  pleasing  incident  is 
a  deep  recess  or  grotto  in  the  upper  or  water  side  of  the 
arch,  from  the  roof  of  which  there  descends,  ever- 
dripping  through  the  crevices  of  the  dark  rocks,  to  the 
bed  of  the  brook  below,  a  shower  of  sparkling  water. 
Seeing  nothing  above  him  but  the  lofty  arch  of  the 
bridge  and  the  clear  sky  beyond,  the  visitor  looks  around 
in  wonder  for  the  solution  of  the  pleasant  mystery.  At 
length  bethinking  him  of  the  magical  power  of  the  Cro- 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


Si 


ton,  lie  understands  how  the  water  has  been  ingeniously 
conveyed  from  the  great  reservoir  near  by  iuto  the  in- 
terior of  the  bridge,  from  which  it  has  been  allowed  to 
drip,  drip,  drip  so  merrily. 

Opposite  the  grotto,  on  the  foot-path  side  of  the  arch, 
there  is  another  recess  provided  for  a  rustic  louuge, 
from  which  this  gay  dance  of  the  water-sprites  may  be 
seen  and  enjoyed  at  leisure.  The  grotto  is  a  fitting 
bower  for  some  mythical  Lurlay  or  dreaming  Undine, 
and  in  the  bygone  days  of  legend  and  romance  might 
hare  suggested  many  a  weird  tale  and  superstition, 
grave  or  gay. 

THE  BOULE  TARD  DRIVE. 

The  Boulevard  is  the  name  given  to  a  grand  carriage- 
road  which  it  is  proposed  to  construct  from  the  park, 
and  in  connection  with  it  northward  five  or  six  miles  to 
King's  Bridge,  on  the  Spuyten  Duyvel,  at  the  upper 
end  of  the  island — passing  up  eastwardly.  and  returning 
on  the  west  side.  This  northern  portion  of  the  city, 
with  the  exception  of  the  Harlem  Plains,  which  lie  be- 
tween it  and  the  park,  is  a  series  of  bold  hills  and  val- 
leys, and  is  at  present  chiefly  occupied  with  country- 
seats  and  rural  villas.  It  is  intended  to  lay  out  this 
region,  not  in  rectangular  streets,  as  in  the  old  city 
below,  but  in  such  winding,  picturesque  ways  as  will  be 
naturally  suggested  by  the  topography.  The  work  has 
been  assigned  to  the  Central  Park  Commissioners,  and 
is  to  be  executed  in  harmony  with  the  general  spirit  of 
the  park  landscape. 


82 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


The  proposed  drive,  while  serving  its  picturesque  uses, 
will,  of  course,  be  a  public  street,  lined  on  either  side 
with  such  edifices  as  the  locality  may  require.  Though 
not  really  a  portion  of  the  park,  it  wiD,  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  Park  Commissioners,  be  in  a  measure  a  vir- 
tual extension  of  the  park,  even  so  far  beyond  its  walls. 

REFECTORIES. 

The  Refectories  of  the  park  will  in  due  time  be  ainple 
in  number  and  capacity.  One  only  of  these  pleasant 
establishments  is  as  yet  in  full  and  permanent  operation, 
if  we  except  the  temporary  buildings  to  be  seen  in 
wintar  on  the  margin  of  the  skating-ponds,  and.  the 
restaurant  conveniences  at  the  old  Mount  St.  Vincent 
buildings  in  the  Upper  Park. 

The  finished  refectory  is  the  pretty  structure  stand- 
ing near  the  head  of  the  Mall,  and  overlooking,  from  its 
more  elevated  site,  the  whole  range  of  that  noble  prom- 
enade and  all  its  adjacent  points  of  attractions,  includ- 
ing the  Music  Pavilion,  the  Terrace,  the  Lake,  and  the 
Ramble,  in  one  direction,  and  in  another,  the  Conser- 
vatory Lake  and  Flower  Garden  locality.  This  little 
edifice  is  known  as  the  Casino;  and  though  designed 
ultimately  for  the  use  of  ladies  and  children^ only,  is  at 
present,  in  the  absence  of  further  provision  of  the  kind, 
open  to  all  visitors.  It  is  intended  to  furnish  at  this 
point  only  such  light  refection  as  the  gentler  and  more 
ethereal  sex  are  supposed  to  require.  On  music-days 
I  ne  may  sip  an  ice  or  dispatch  a  cream  within  the  cool 
bowers  of  the  Casino,  and,  at  the  same  time,  drink  in 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


S3 


the  grand  orchestral  strains  of  the  band  near  by,  soft- 
ened by  the  accompaniments  of  gentle  breezes  and  the 
sweet  warblings  of  birds. 

The  larger  and  chief  Casino  of  the  park  will  probably 
soon  be  built  on  the  open  ground  just  east  of  the  Old 
Reservoir  and  above  the  Seventy-ninth  street  and  Fifth 
Avenue  gate,  though  it  has  all  along  been  intended  to 
place  it  on  the  rising  ground  on  the  west  side  of  the 
Central  Lake. 

This  editice  will  be  large  enough  to  furnish  forth  not 
o»ly  dainty  cream  and  sherbet,  but  the  best  of  dinners 
for  the  most  exacting  of  epicures,  with  all  the  jargon 
that  the  most  ambitious  bill  of  fare  could  wish  to  offer. 
It  wffl  contain  also  rooms  suitable  for  concerts,  billiards, 
and  other  in-door  enjoyments. 

At  present,  entertainment  for  man  and  beast  is 
afforded  at  the  old  buildings  known  as  Mount  St.  Yin- 
cent,  on  the  East  Carriage -road,  near  One  Hundred  and 
Sixth  street.  This  accommodation  has  been  provided 
more  especially  fur  visitors  in  carriages  and  on  horse- 
back. This  temporary  refectory  is  fitted  and  supplied 
with  all  the  luxury  of  the  best  city  houses,  and  is  a 
favorite  breakfasting  place  of  the  early  riders  in  the 
park. 

It  remains  only  to  say  of  the  restaurant  privileges  of 
the  park,  that  the  whole  department  is  under  the  effi- 
cient control  of  Stetson  and  Radford,  of  Astor  House 
fame. 

MOUNT  ST.  VIXCEXT. 

Mount  St.  Vincent  is  on  the  eastern  or  Fifth  Avenue 
side  of  the  Upper  Park,  not  far  below  the  northern 


84 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


limits  of  the  grounds.  The  site  is  of  noble  elevation, 
commanding  fine  panoramic  views  of  all  the  Upper 
Park,  and  of  the  surrounding  beauties  to  be  seen  far 
away  on  the  Harlem  River  and  Long  Island  Sound. 
The  great  Carriage-drive  passes  over  the  heights  of 
Mount  St.  Vincent. 

Before  the  present  occupation  for  park  uses,  this  site 
was  occupied  by  the  Roman  Catholic  Seminary  of 
Mount  St.  Vincent,  now  located* on  the  banks  of  the 
Hudson,  just  below  Yonkers.  The  buildings  of  this 
foundation  yet  remain,  and  are  used  for  such  various 
purposes  as  need  or  convenience  may  require.  Among 
them  is  a  new  brick  edifice  of  imposing  architecture, 
which  contains  the  fine  chapel  in  which  the  priests* and 
pupils  of  Mount  St.  Vincent  were  whilom  wont  to 
worship. 

This  edifice  being  of  new  and  substantial  construc- 
tion, and  picturesque  withal,  will  no  doubt  be  preserved 
and  made  attractive  as  an  art  gallery,  a  library,  or  in 
some  other  useful  and  appropriate  manner.  The  ad- 
joining structures  are  old  wooden  affairs,  which  have 
done  good  service,  to  be  sure,  during  the  building  of  the 
park,  as  offices  and  residences  of  the  park  officials,  but 
which  are  now  becoming  incongruous  and  cumbersome, 
and  must  soon  be  removed. 

During  the  late  war  they  were  profitably  occupied  as 
Government  hospitals,  and  just  now  they  are  u-ed 
agreeably  as  a  restaurant  for  the  pleasure  of  visitors  in 
this  more  remote  portion  of  the  grounds. 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


85 


THE  HARLEM  LAKE. 

The  Harlem  Lake  is  the  second  in  extent  of  the  beau- 
tiful waters  of  the  park.  It  occupies  an  area  of  about 
thirteen  acres,  in  the  extreme  northeastern  angle  of  the 
grounds,  and  was  opened  in  the  spring  of  1866.  When 
the  look  of  newness  disappears  from  the  banks, 
under  the  shadow  of  trees  and  shrubbery  and  of  archi- 
tectural decoration,  it  will  be  one  of  the  most  attractive 
of  all  the  water  resorts  of  the  park.  Even  now  it  is  an 
invaluable  incident  in  the  many  tine  landscape  views  to 
be  obtained  from  the  lofty  elevations  which  abound  in 
the  neighborhood.  Mr.  Grant,  the  efficient  and  skilful 
superintending  engineer,  has  suggested  the  erection  of 
a  fountain  or  jet  (Veau  near  the  centre  of  this  lake  ; 
which  happy  idea  will  most  likely  soon  be  realized,  and 
with  great  "success,  as  the  lowness  of  the  position  will 
permit  a  great  elevation  in  the  upspringing  floods. 
The  level  of  the  lake  above  tide-water  is  only  eleven 
feet,  while  that  of  the  reservoir  is  one  hundred  and 
fifteen  feet,  thus  affording  a  jet  of  magnificent  height. 

It  will  also  be  a  pleasurable  and  amusing  incident  in 
the  boat-travel  of  the  lake,  to  venture  so  far  within  the 
sunlit  spray  of  the  falling  waters  as  to  flirt  with  the 
diamond  drops,  and  yet  avoid  the  ducking  which  a 
little  nearer  venture  would  involve. 

The  Harlem  Lake  is  the  great  culminating  point  and 
climax  of  the  beautiful  chain  of  waters  which,  in  the 
form  of  pool,  or  loch,  or  narrow  brooklet,  traverses  the 
great  valley  of  the  Upper  Park,  from  the  Eighth  Avenue 
side  at  One  Hundredth  street  to  the  northeastern  corner 
at  Fifth  Avenue  and  One  Hundred  and  Tenth  street. 
.  9 


S6 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


THE  ARBORETUM. 

The  Arboretum  and  Nursery  lies  on  the  Fifth  Avenue 
side  of  the  Upper  Park,  east  of  Mount  St.  Vincent  and 
south  of  the  Harlem  Lake.  At  the  present  time,  only 
the  area  immediately  around  Mount  St.  Vincent  is,  thus 
occupied,  and  that  only  as  a  nursery,  though  it  has  long 
been  proposed  to  use  most  of  the  stretch  between  the 
Harlem  Lake  and  the  Upper  Reservoir,  along  the  eastern 
verge  of  the  grounds  (an  area  of  some  forty  acres)  as  an 
Arboretum,  where  there  may  be  cultivated  specimens 
of  every  American  tree  and  shrub  which  the  soil  will 
support. 

Such  a  collection  as  that  proposed  would  afford  an 
excellent  school  for  the  botanical  student,  besides  being 
an  unceasing  field  of  interest  and  instruction  to  all 
visitors.  It  is  proposed  to  limit  the  collection  to 
American  trees  and  shrubs  only,  for  the  reason,  among 
others,  that  the  space  is  insufficient  for  a  complete 
presentation  of  the  vegetation  of  all  lands,  and  that 
foreign  trees  may  be  planted  as  well  in  other  parts  of 
the  domain  ;  and  also  for  the  opportunity  it  will  afford 
to  show  the  great  advantage  that  America  possesses  in 
this  respect, — no  other  extra-tropical  country  being  able 
to  furnish  one  quarter  the  material  for  such  a  collection. 
The  whole  of  Great  Britain,  for  example,  exhibits  less 
than  twenty  species  of  trees  native  to  the  island,  that 
grow  to  be  thirty  feet  in  height,  while  America 
possesses  from  five  to  six  times  that  number.  There 
are,  indeed,  already  scattered  through  the  park  grounds 
forty  species  of  the  largest  native  trees,  which  is  nearly 
equivalent  to  the  number  to  be  found  in  all  Europe. 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


s: 


"It  is  proposed,1'  say  the  Park  Commissioners,  "to 
plant  from  one  to  three  examples  of  each  species  of  tree 
on  open  lawn,  and  with  sufficient  space  abont  each  to 
allow  it  to  attain  its  fullest  size  with  unrestricted 
expanse  of  branches ;  the  effect  of  each  tree  is  also  to 
be  exhibited  in  masses,  so  as  to  illustrate  its  qualities 
for  grouping.  Space  is  provided  to  admit  of  at  least 
three  specimens  of  every  native  tree  which  is  known 
to  flourish  in  the  United  States  north  of  the  Carolinas, 
also  for  several  specimens  of  every  shrub ;  these  latter, 
however,  are  not,  except  in  particular  instances,  to  be 
planted  singly  but  in  thickets,  and  as  underwood  to  the 
coppice  masses,  as  may  best  accord  with  their  natural 
habits  and  be  most  agreeable  to  the  eye." 


McGOWAN'S  PASS. 

McGowan's  Pass  is  the  name  popularly,  though  some- 
what erroneously  given  to  the  ravine  lying  between  the 
eastern  and  we  tern  Carriage-drive,  and  traversed  by 
the  brook  running  from  the  Pool  to  the  Harlem  Lake 
in  the  Upper  Park.  "McGowan's  Pass"  was,  in  the 
ancient  days  of  the  Revolution,  not  the  gorge  or  valley 
itself  which  now  bears  the  name,  but  simply  the  gate- 
way or  entrance  to  the  valley — the  "Pass"  into  the 
valley,  at  which  a  toll  had  to  be  paid.  This  pass  or 
"pike"  was  located  on  the  Old  Boston  Road,  near  the 
upper  end  of  the  ravine — now  at  the  northeastern  angle 
of  the  park.  Thus,  through  a  little  misunderstanding, 
has  the  McGowan  memory  fallen  heir  to  a  nobler  in- 
heritance of  fame  than  properly  belongs  to  it. 


88 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


The  " Old  Boston  Road"  which  traversed  the  "Pass1' 
was  no  doubt  more  or  less  used  by  the  troops  during 
the  war  for  American  Independence,  and  most  memor- 
ably so  by  the  patriot  forces  after  their  depressing 
defeat  in  the  battle  of  Long  Island.  Of  such  occupancy 
many  memorials  have  been  discovered  and  are  still 
preserved. 

The  gorge  traverses  the  Upper  Park  from  the  north- 
east angle  in  a  southwesterly  direction,  and  is  about 
thirty  feet  wide  and  some- eight  hundred  feet  in  length. 
It  is  flanked  on  either  side — particularly  on  the  north- 
west— by  bold  hill-slopes. 

This  admirable  topography  has  been  well  used  in  the 
construction  of  the  park,  and  is  available  for  yet  greater 
picturesque  effect  as  new  details  of  adornment  may 
suggest  themselves. 

THE  GREAT  HILL. 

The  Great  Hill,  which  overlooks  the  ravine  known  in 
history  as  McGowan's  Pass,  is  situated  near  the  north- 
west corner  of  the  Upper  Park,  and  though  lower 
by  seven  feet  than  the  Knoll,  is  seemingly,  from  the 
greater  depressions  around  it,  of  nobler  height  than 
that  most  elevated  of  all  points  within  the  park  do- 
mains. 

The  Carriage-drive  in  its  western  circuit  ascends  the 
Great  Hill  and  forms  a  concourse  on  its  crest.  The 
view  thence  of  the  park  and  its  surroundings  is  of 
exceeding  interest.  Below  lie  the  meadows  and  lakes, 
uie  roads  and  paths  of  the  park ;  and  far  off  beyond  the 


CENTRAL*  PARK. 


89 


Harlem  Plains  are  seen  the  Hudson  and  its  palisaded 
shores ;  the  great  High  Bridge  of  the  Croton  aqueduct 
over  the  Harlem  River,  with  its  many  marble  arches ; 
the  East  River,  with  its  teeming  commerce,  and  its 
pretty  islands  covered  with  the  public  asylums  of  the 
city;  the  broad  Sound,  and  uold  Long  Island's  sea-girt 
shores."  The  incidents  of  the  landscape  are  numerous 
and  rich  enough  to  arrest  long  scrutiny,  and  are  espe- 
cially beautiful  in  their  sudden  and  unlocked  for  appear- 
ance on  rising  the  crest  of  the  hill,  and  in  contrast  with 
the  glen-like  character  of  much  of  the  scenery  below. 

It  is  expected  that  at  some  future  day,  the  Great  Hill 
will  be  the  site  of  a  public  observatory,  or  of  some 
interesting  national  monument;  and  though  it  may  not 
be  desirable  to  burden  the  grounds  too  much  with 
architectural  ornament,  it  may  well  be  allowed  in  such 
special  cases. 

Elevation  of  various  localities  in  the  park  above  the 
tide-water. 

Feet. 


The  Knoll   137 

The  Reservoirs   115 

The  Great  Hill   130 

The  Central  Lak^  (Lower  Park)   53 

The  Mall   79 

The  Carriage  Concourse  (Mall)   91 

The  Pond  near  Sixth  Avenue   26 

The  Green   74 

Mount  St.  Vincent   74 

The  Pool  (Upper  Park)   47 

The  Loch  (Upper  Park)   24 

The  Harlem  Lake   12 

8* 


00 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


THE  BLUFF. 

The  Bluff  or  Cliffs,  in  which  the  hill-side  ahove  the 
McGowan  Pass  terminates  so  abruptly,  serves  to  form 
a  portion  of  the  northern  boundary  of  the  park.  On  the 
brow  of  this  bold  outlook  over  the  Harlem  plaius, 
there  -is  still  standing  a  stone  structure,  which  formed 
part  of  a  line  of  fortifications  erected  here  during  the 
war  of  1812.  At  a  yet  later  date,  a  roof  was  added  to 
it,  making  it  useful  as  a  Powder  Magazine,  and  giving 
the  building  the  name  it  now  familiarly  bears. 

The  fortifications  once  existing  here,  and  of  which 
very  distinct  remains  are  still  preserved,  even  of  a  por- 
tion of  a  line  of  works  that  extended  from  the  Harlem 
to  the  Hudson  rivers,  pass  across  the  park  to  a  point 
a  little  west  of  what  is  now  the  Eighth  Avenue,  and 
extend  along  the  rocky  eminence  on  the  west  of  the 
plains  to  Manhattanville. 

In  making  some  excavations  on  the  northerly  slope  of 
the  Great  Hill,  hard  by  the  old  powder  magazine  just 
mentioned,  about  two  feet  below  the  surface,  the  re- 
mains of  a  military  encampment  were  found.  The 
ground,  in  spaces  of  about  eight  feet  square,  was  com- 
pactly trodden,  and  in  a  corner  of  each  space  was  a  re- 
cess, rudely  built  of  stone,  for  a  fireplace,  with  straps 
of  iron,  that  seemed  to  have  been  used  in  cooking. 
Shot  and  bayonets  were  also  found  in  the  vicinity. 
There  is  sufficient  known  of  the  history  of  this  property 
to  warrant  the  belief  that  it  was  passed  over,  and  per- 
haps occupied,  during  the  year  1776,  by  the  British  and 
Hessian  troops  shortly  after  their  landing  on  the  island, 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


91 


and  that  it  was  occupied  in  the  war  of  1812  by  the 
American  troops.  The  relics  alluded  to  belong  prob- 
ably to  the  latter  period. 

The  remains  of  these  works,  that  so  much  enhance 
the  interest  of  this  section  of  the  park,  will,  as  far  as 
practicable,  be  preserved. 

THE  GREAT  DRIVE. 

The  great  Circuit  or  Carriage-drive  makes  the  entire 
round  of  the  park,  with  the  addition,  if  desired,  of 
various  detours;  and,  in  its  course,  commands  a  view 
of  all  the  greater  points  of  interest  within  the  grounds. 
The  principal  starting-poi^t  of  the  Drive  is  at  the  Fifth 
Avenue  and  Fifty-ninth  street  gate,  or  at  the  opposite 
corners  on  the  Eight  Avenue.  Entering  at  the  Fifth 
Avenue,  the  road  pa-ses  the  lower  end  of  the  Kali; 
then,  skirting  it  on  the  west,  continues  along  the  Cen- 
tral Lake  over  the  Balcony  Bridge;  then  along  the 
Winter  Drive,  west  of  the  Reservoir,  to  the  Knoll,  the 
highest  point  of  land  within  the  area  of  the  park.  From 
the  Knoll  it  continues  onward  past  the  Xew  Reservoir 
into  the  Upper  Park,  where  it  crosses  the  historical 
ravine  of  McGowan's  Pass,  and  rises  to  the  summit  of. 
the  Great  Hill.  From  the  Great  Hill  it  passes  over  the 
bluff  or  cliff  on  the  northern  boundary  of  the  grounds; 
and  then,  bending  southward,  touches  Harlem  Lake, 
and  passes  down  the  eastern  side  of  the  park,  over 
Mount  St.  Vincent,  by  the  Meadow,  past  "the  reservoirs 
again,  and  the  Ramble,  the  Conservatory  Lake,  the 
Mail,  and  the  Arsenal,  to  the  starting-point  at  the  Fifth 


92 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


Avenue.  The  entire  circuit,  with  the  detours,  is  nine 
and  a  half  miles ;  and  it  is  doubtful  if  any  carriage-way 
in  the  world  surpasses  it  in  thoroughness  of  construc- 
tionn  or  in  the  natural  and  artistic  beauties  which  it  ex- 
poses to  the  eye  of  the  traveller.* 

UNDERGROUND. 

It  is,  no  doubt,  safe  to  suppose  that  very  few  of  the 
thousands  who  daily  traverse  the  park  roads,  easy  and 
pleasant  of  pas-age,  free  of  mud  in  wet  weather  and  of 
dust  in  dry — except  as  it  may  blow  in  from  the  outside 
streets — think  Of  the  skill  and  labor  and  money  which 
have  been  expended  upon  the  unseen  foundation-work; 
from  the  trimming  of  the  road-bed,  through  the  suc- 
cessive layers  of  stones  and  gravel,  until  the  smooth  and 
solid  surface  is  at  last  reached;  and  of  the  elaborate 
and  careful  system  of  drainage  provided  for  their  pro- 
tection and  preservation. 

Not  less  than  one  hundred  and  ten  miles  of  such 
underground  work,  in  the  form  of  water-pipes  and 
drains,  have  been  already  laid  in  the  park.  These  con- 
duits serve  to  carry  off  all  the  water  not  needed,  and  to 
supply  ample  irrigation  at  ease  and  at  will  in  every 
portion  of  the  grounds.  They  fill  the  lakes  and  ponds, 
and  are  the  hidden  servitors  of  the  beautiful  fountain- 
and  the  bounteous  drinking-cups. 

Besides  all  this  unseen  architecture,  a  vast  amount  cf 
labor  in  other  forms,  not  suggested  by  the  visible  sui  - 

*  For  further  details  of  the  drives  and  rides  and  walks  of  the  park, 
the  reader  is  referred  to  page  17. 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


93 


face,  has  been  expended  in  the  careful  construction  of 
the  park.  The  region  was  originally  but  a  barren  and 
sterile  place;  and,  in  transforming  it  into  its  present 
Arcadian  luxuriance  and  beauty,  the  soil  has  been 
changed,  and,  in  many  places,  the  ground  has  been 
literally  made ;  while  rock-bound  waterfalls  now  leap 
with  all  the  freedom  of  nature  under  the  creative  hand 
of  art  alone.  The  vegetation  also  of  the  park  is  the  re- 
sult of  constructive  labor — very  many  of  the  trees,  as 
well  as  of  the  shrubs  and  flowers,  having  been  carefully 
planted  in  the  soil  patiently  made  for  their  use. 

Those  who  remember  the  grounds  in  their  original 
state,  and  especially  those  who  watched  the  earlier 
Stages  of  the  after-transformation,  listening  to  the  thun- 
derings  of  the  unceasing  blasts  of  ponderous  rock,  and 
seeing  the  roads  and  paths  and  lakes  and  gra-sy  lawns 
spring  into  being  under  the  busy  bands  of  the  three 
thousand  laborers  toiling  together  month  after  month 
and  year  after  year,  will  not  consider  it  uninteresting 
or  unprofitable  to  remember  the  underground  architec- 
ture, so  to  speak,  6?  our  park. 

THE  DESIGNERS  AND  CONSTRUCTORS  OF  THE 
PARK. 

The  preliminary  surveys  of  the  park  grounds,  prior 
to  the  commencement  of  the  work  of  construction, 
were  made  in  1S56,  by  a  corps  of  competent  engineers, 
under  the  direction  of  Egbert  *L.  Viele  as  engineer- 
in- chief. 

Premiums  were  offered  by  the  Board  of  Commis- 


94 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


sioners,  in  the  year  1858,  for  designs  for  the  park ;  and 
in  response  to  this  call  thirty-three  plans  were  offered 
in  competition,  and  among  them  the  one  which  was 
afterwards  selected  by  the  Board,  and  in  general  accord- 
ance with  which  the  work  has  since  been  prosecuted. 

This  successful  design  was  made  by  Mr.  Frederick 
Law  Olmsted  and  Mr.  Calvert  Vaux  ;  and  these  accom- 
plished artists  may  therefore,  in  general  terms,  be  said 
to  be  the  authors  or  designers  of  the  park,  although,  as 
before  intimated,  many  little,  and  some  important,  vari- 
ations have  been  made  from  their  original  plan.  Yet  in 
all  the  great  essential  features  of  the  work  it  is  in 
accordance  with  their  design.  That  the  plan  was  a 
felicitous  one  is  evident  from  the  universal  approval 
with  which  it  has  been  met  by  the  public,  from  the 
commencement  of  its  execution  to  the  present  day  of 
its  near  completion. 

Mr.  Olmsted  and  Mr.  Vaux  are  not  only  entitled  to 
the  honor  of  the  happy  design — as  far,  at  least,  as  One 
Hundred  and  Sixth  street,  the  original  northern  boun- 
dary line — but  to  a  great  share  of  the  credit  of  its 
equally  happy  execution,  both  of  them  having  been 
actively  engaged  upon  the  work  at  intervals  from  the 
commencement  until  now,  in  their  respective  positions 
as  architect  and  assistant- architect  of  the  park.  Their 
official  title  in  connection  with  the  work  is  at  this  time 
landscape-architect.  Measured  by  their  works,  they 
are  gentlemen  of  rare  taste  and  judgment,  and  of  dis- 
tinguished professional  ability.  The  laying  out  of  the 
grounds  has  been  done  to  a  great  extent  under  their 
personal  supervision,  and  many  of  the  finest  architec- 
tural adornments  of  the  grounds — especially  that  most 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


95 


elaborate  and  beautiful  of  all  the  works,  known  as  the 
Terrace — were  designed  by  Mr.  Vaux. 

We  are  also  greatly  indebted  to  the  fine  genius  of  the 
distinguished  architect,  Mr.  J.  AYrey  Mould,  for  the 
architectural  triumphs  in  the  construction  of  the  park, 
especially  in  respect  to  the  more  ornamental  and  deco- 
rative portions.  Among  Mr.  Mould's  contributions  is 
that  graceful  little  structure  at  the  head  of  the  mall, 
known  as  the  Music  Pavilion,  a  design  admirably  suited 
botli  to  the  position  and  its  uses. 

Mr.  Edward  C.  Miller  has  also  employed  his  profes- 
sional skill  with  great  advantage  in  this  direction. 

To  Mr.  Pilat,  the  head  gardener,  we  owe  the  excel- 
lent realization  of  the  plan  and  purpose  of  that  most 
attractive  of  all  the  features  of  the  grounds,  called  the 
Ramble,  and  the  judicious  management  of  all  the  other 
portions  of  the  labor  coming  within  his  department. 

In  expressing  our  appreciation  of  the  inventive  skill 
of  the  architects  employed,  we  must  by  no  means  forget 
the  rare  scientific  ability  which  has  been  everywhere 
displayed  in  the  thorough  and  most  successful  execu- 
tion of  their  designs.  It  is  pleasant  to  travel  the  charm- 
ing roads  of  the  park,  and  to  view  its  elegant  fabrics ; 
and  doubly  so,  when  we  Know  that  the  work  is  as  sub- 
stantial and  durable  as  it  is  beautiful.  For  in  this  age 
of  uninformed  and  superficial  achievement,  too  many 
works,  well-conceived,  are  useless  from  the  want  of 
skilful  and  conscientious  execution.  Happily,  no  such 
regret  arises  in  the  present  case ;  for  under  the  experi- 
enced care  of  Mr.  William  H.  Grant,  the  engineer-in- 
chief  of  the  park,  the  execution  of  the  work  everywhere 
displays  no  less  skill  than  does  the  design.    Mr.  Grant 


96 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


is,  and  has  been  from  the  beginning,,  the  superintending 
engineer,  to  whose  work  it  has  fallen  to  interpret — 
often,  indeed,  to  improve,  and  always  to  make  practi- 
cally available — the  sometimes  vague  thoughts  of  the 
architects.  The  care  and  ability  with  which  he  has 
filled  his  important  office,  from  first  to  last,  is  evident 
to  the  experienced  eye  at  every  step,  whether  the 
glance  be  downward,  upon  the  humble  sub-structure 
of  the  foundation,  or  upward,  to  the  graceful  and 
beautiful  cap-stone  of  the  work.  What  is  done  in 
such  a  manner  is  doubly  done,  since  it  is  not  the 
crumbling  pleasure  of  the  day,  but  the  beauty  which 
will  endure  for  years. 

Mr.  M.  A.  Kellogg  has  rendered  valuable  service  from 
the  beginning,  as  the  principal  assistant  in  the  engineer 
department. 

Mr.  Richard  M.  Hunt,  the  architect,  has  made  ad- 
mirable and  imposing  designs  at  the  solicitation  of  the 
Board  of  Commissioners  for  the  four  gates  to  be  placed 
at  the  entrances  on  the  lower  boundary  of  the  park, 
which  designs  it  is  to  be  hoped  he  will  soon  be  em- 
powered to  execute.  The  park  gates  are  very  important 
portions  of  the  architecture,  and  could  not  be  confided 
to  more  skilful  hands. 

Besides  the  architects  and  the  engineers,  thousands 
of  others  have  contributed  in  various  capacities,  from 
that  of  mason,  and  carpenter,  and  plumber,  down  to  the 
common  laborer,  towards  the  great  creation  of  the 
park.  During  the  earlier  years  of  construction,  the 
number  of  men  employed  within  the  grounds  at  one 
time  often  exceeded  three  thousand,  besides  another 
thousand  engaged  in  the  building  the  New  Reservoir. 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


97 


GOVERNMENT  OF  THE  PARK. 

The  park  is  governed  by  a  Board  of  Commissioners — 
formerly  eleven,  now  eight  in  number.  This  board  is 
appointed  by  the  Legislature  of  the  State,  and  is 
required  to  report  annually  to  the  Common  Council  of 
the  city.  The  members  of  the  Board  receive  no  pay 
for  their  services  beyond  three  hundred  dollars  each 
per  year  for  incidental  expenses;  except  the  chief 
executive  officer,  to  whom  a  liberal  salary  is  paid. 

The  Board  has  entire  control  of  all  the  affairs  of  the 
park,  as  in  the  selection  of  designs  and  plans  for  con- 
struction, the  appointment  of  officers  and  employees, 
the  expenditure  of  moneys,  etc. 

Mr.  Andrew  H.  Green,  the  comptroller,  is  the 
executive  officer  of  the  Board,  which  position  he  has 
always  filled  with  great  judgment  and  ability. 

A  special  police  force  of  about  fifty  men  is  employed, 
under  the  rule  of  the  Board  of  Commissioners,  as 
keepers  of  the  park.  They  are  easily  recognized  by 
their  gray  uniform  (especial  to  the  park),  as  well  as  by 
their  official  air.  The  duty  of  the  keepers  is  to  see  that 
the  rules  and  regulations  of  the  park  are  not  violated, 
and  to  give  all  desired  direction  and  information  to 
visitors.  They  are  a  well-drilled,  well-mannered,  and 
efficient  body  of  men. 

ORDINANCES  OF  THE  PARK. 

As  it  is  obviously  to  the  general  interest  that  the 
beauty  of  the  park  should  in  no  wise  be  marred,  all 
9 


08 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


visitors  will  see  the  propriety  of  a  strict  observance  of 
the  laws  provided  for  its  protection.  For  the  benefit  of 
those,  if  such  there  be,  whose  own  sense  of  what  is  De- 
fitting  is  an  insufficient  guide,  we  repeat  here  a  few  of 
the  published  rules  of  conduct  while  in  the  park. 
Thus- 
All  persons  are  forbidden — 

To  enter  or  leave  the  park  except  by  the  gate- 
ways. 

To  climb  or  walk  upon  the  wall. 
To  turn  cattle,  horses,  goats  or  swine  into  the  park. 
To  carry  firearms  or  to  throw  stones  or  other  missiles 
within  it. 

To  cut,  break,  or  in  any  way  injure  or  deface  the 
trees,  shrubs,  plants,  turf,  or  any  of  the  buildings, 
fences,  or  other  constructions  upon  the  park. 

No  animal  shall  travel  on  any  part  of  the.  Central 
Park,  except  upon  the  "ride"  or  equestrian  road,  at  a 
rate  exceeding  seven  miles  per  hour.  Persons  on 
horseback  shall  not  travel  on  the  "ride"  or  equestrian 
road  at  a  rate  exceeding  ten  miles  per  hour. 

No  vehicle  shall  be  permitted  on  the  "  ride"  or 
equestrian  road,  the  same  being  devoted  exclusively  to 
equestrians ;  nor  shall  any  vehicle,  horse,  or  animal  of 
burden  go  upon  any  part  of  the  Central  Park  except 
upon  the  "drive"  and  other  carriage  and  transverse 
roads,  and  upon  such  places  as  are  appropriated  for 
carriages  at  rest. 

No  animal  or  vehicle  shall  be  permitted  to  stand 
upon  the  "drive"  or  carriage-roads  of  the  Central 
Park,  or  any  part  thereof,  to  the  obstruction  of  the 
v/ay,  or  to  the  inconvenience  of  travel;  nor  shall  any 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


99 


person  upon  the  Central  Park  solicit  or  invite  pas- 
sengers. 

No  hackney  coach,  carriage,  or  other  vehicle  for  hire 
shall  stand  upon  any  part  of  the  Central  Park  for  the 
purpose  of  taking  in  any  other  passengers  or  persons 
than  those  carried  to  the  park  by  said  coach,  carriage, 
or  vehicle. 

No  person  shall  expose  any  article  or  thing  for  sale 
upon  the  Central  Park,  except  previously  licensed  by 
the  Board  of  Commissioners  of  the  Central  Park,  nor 
shall  any  hawking  or  peddling  be  allowed  on  the  Central 
Park. 

No  omnibus  or  express  wagon,  with  or  without  pas- 
sengers, nor  any  cart,  dray,  wagon,  truck  or  other 
vehicle  carrying  goods,  I  merchandise,  manure,  soil,  or 
other  articles,  or  oolely  used  for  the  carriage  of  goods, 
merchandise,  manure,  or  other  articles,  shall  be  allowed 
to  enter  any  part  of  the  Central  Park  except  upon  the 
transverse  roads. 

No  threatening,  abusive,  insulting  or  indecent  lan- 
guage shall  be  allowed  on  the  Central  Park,  whereby  a 
breach  of  the  peace  may  be  occasioned. 

No  person  shall  be  allowed  to  tell  fortunes  or  play  at 
any  game  of  chance,  at  cr  with  any  table  or  instrument 
of  gaming,  nor  to  do  any  obscene  or  indecent  act  what- 
ever on  the  Central  Park. 

No  dog  shall  be  allowed  upon  any  portion  of  the 
Central  Park,  unless  led  by  a  chain  or  proper  dog-string, 
not  exceeding  five  feet  in  length,,  nor  shall  any  person 
be  allowed  to  lead  any  quadruped  (except  dogs)  in  the 
Central  Park. 

No  person,  except  in  the  employ  of  the  Board  of 


100' 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


Commissioners  of  the  Central  Park,  shall  bring  upon 
the  Central  Park  any  tree,  shrub,  plant,  or  flower,  nor 
any  newly  plucked  branch,  plant,  or  flower. 

No  person  shall  bathe,  or  fish  in,  or  go,  or  send  any 
animal  into  any  of  the  waters  of  tfie  park,  nor  disturb 
any  of  the  fish,  water-fowl,  or  other  birds  in  the  park, 
nor  throw,  or  place  any  article  or  thing  in  said  waters. 

No  person  shall  fire,  discharge,  or  set  off  in  the 
Central  Park,  any  rocket,  cracker,  torpedo,  squib, 
balloon,  snake,  chaser,  or  double-header,  nor  any  fire- 
works or  thing  under  any  other  name,  composed  of  the 
same  or  similar  material,  or  of  the  same  or  similar 
character  as  the  fireworks  above  specified. 

No  person  shall  place  or  propel  any  invalid  chairs  or 
perambulators  upon  any  portion  of  the  Central  Park 
except  upon  the  walks. 

No  person  shall  post  or  otherwise  affix  any  bill, 
notice,  or  other  paper,  upon  any  structure  or  thing 
within  the  Central  Park,  nor  upon  any  of  the  gates  or 
inclosures  thereof. 

No  person  shall  without  the  consent  of  the  Comp- 
troller of  the  Park,  play  upon  any  musical  instrument 
within  the  Central  Park,  nor  shall  any  person  take  into, 
or  carry  or  display  in  the  Central  Park,  any  flag,  banner, 
target  or  transparency. 

No  military  or  target -company,  or  civic  or  other  pro- 
cession, shall  be  permitted  to  parade,  drill,  or  perform 
upon  the  Central  Park,  any  military  or  other  evolutions 
or  movements. 

To  the  preceding  extracts  from  the  rules  and  regu- 
lations of  the  park,  we  may  add  that  the  visitor  may 
gain  some  useful  information  and  direction  by  a  due 


CENTRAL  PARK. 


101 


observance  of  the  various  index-boards  placed  here  and 
there  about  the  grounds. 

THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  PARK. 

Some  features  of  the  park  yet  incomplete,  or  only 
projected,  as  the  Zoological  Garden,  Flower  Garden, 
Park  Gates,  and  other  incidents,  have  been  described 
in  this  volume  among  the  finished  . works,  inasmuch  as 
they  will  no  doubt  very  soon  be  present  facts  instead  of 
future  prospects.  Subsequent  editions  of  our  little 
Guide  will  demand  additional  pages  to  record  many 
fresh  attractions,  which  will  spring  up  as  time  passes. 

Measuring  the  future  bv»  the  past,  seeing  the  wonders 
which  have  been  accomplished  in  these  yet  early  days 
of  the  park,  what  indeed  may  we  not  expect  of  the 
years  to  come,  in  the  ever  increasing  art  embellish- 
ment of  the  grounds,  and,  above  all,  in  the  new  charms 
which  will  be  daily  added  by  the  hand  of  nature,  in  the 
constant  growth  of  the  vegetation  ?  The  visitor  of  to- 
day, though  looking  around  him  with  wonder  and 
delight,  may  yet  reasonably  envy  the  far  greater  pleas- 
ure in  store  for  those  whose  good  fortune  it  may  be  to 
ramble  through  the  leafy  shades  fifty,  or  even  a  score 
of  years  hence.  The  space  is  ample ;  the  ways  and 
means  abundant ;  the  public  spirit  is  broad  ;  the  heart 
of  the  people  is  in  the  work — money,  genius,  taste, 
purposg,  and  all  other  elements  of  power  are  at  hand 
to  make  the  Central  Park  .one  of  the  most  charming 
and  varied  Arcadias  which  the  world  has  ever  seen. 


JAMES  MILLER, 

Hflfllisellfr,  ful)Iis|fr,  antr  |mprttr, 

522  BROADWAY,  NEW  YORK, 

OPPOSITE  THE  8T.  NICHOLAS  HOTEL, 

Has  for  sale  a  very  complete  and  extensive  stock  of 

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WORKS  OF  WILLIAM  WARE. 


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JAMES  MILLER,  Publisher, 

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